Typo Costs Elderly OKC Couple Thousands

A simple typo has cost an elderly Oklahoma City couple thousands of dollars.

The husband and wife are on a fixed income and say it has taken weeks for Cox Cable to give them back the money they accidentally overpaid.

The lady of the house normally pays all of the bills. But when she went to the hospital for 16 days, her husband used the Internet to take care of their affairs and that got them into a world of trouble.

For years the Deemers' cable bill has been $23.99. So when Mrs. Deemer was unable to pay their bill, Mr. Deemer knew the exact amount without even looking at the Cox statement, with one tiny difference.

"I forgot the decimal point in the wrong place," Dick Deemer said.

And just like that, $23.99 became $2,399.00. Mr. Deemer overpaid by $2,375.01.

"The way things are with computers, them suckers ought to talk," he said.

The computer didn't talk, nor did the system stop the overpayment. His bank honored the draft.

"Surely someone has done the same stupid thing. I mean it's stupid, you know? Who knows where a person's mind is at when they do something like. I mean, we are all human, you know?"

Human error cost these seniors on a fixed income.

"I have been sitting here looking for that check, and on top of that my bank is charging me $6.25 a day for over and insufficient funds."

Bank of Oklahoma waived three of the six overdraft fees, at $32 each. Now it's been three weeks and the Deemers are waiting on Cox to issue a refund

"I made the mistake, but I just don't understand why it's taken all this time."

And time in this case really is money.

"Don't ask me how or why but it's happened. I don't know if I was spaced out."

Cox told the Deemers it mailed their refund last week. News 9 tried to contact Cox on Wednesday but our calls were not returned.