Elderly Woman Gets Hit With $284 BILLION Electricity Bill. Blames It On Christmas Lights.

Do you realize just what you could do with $284 billion? You could end world hunger for at least a decade. Or you could buy Netflix outright. Or you could erase the national debt of several 3rd world countries. Hell, you could buy out President Trump a few times over. What can you buy with $284 billion?

Or you could use it to pay a single month's electricity as Mary Horomanski thought she would have to.

Horomanski is an Erie, Pa, resident that recently was the recipient of a gigantic electric bill that said she owed a staggering "284,460,000,000". It also stated that her first payment in the amount of $28,176 was due.

In an interview with The Washington Post, she said: "I opened it up and there it was."

The 58-year-old then started trying to figure out just how much money they were talking about her having to pay. Most people would have a heart attack over such things.

Horomanski just sighed and said: "It wasn’t due until November of 2018. It was like, well, I guess we have a year to come up with this billion-dollar bill."

After looking at the bill, her husband and son started asking her if she was alright. They could tell something was off.

She said: "I’m looking around the room and they’re looking at me now, ’cause I’ve got this funny look on my face. When you see something like that, your heart starts beating, you break out into a little sweat, like, 'What on Earth just happened?' "

While trying to figure out what could have caused the insanely high bill she started thinking about the number of lights they were using to decorate their home.

"We had Christmas lights outside, but we don’t have the ‘[National Lampoon’s] Christmas Vacation’ lights, and I’m looking at my Christmas tree, and I’m like, no, that wouldn’t have caused it . . . " she said.

Finally, Horomanski reached out to her eldest son via text message and showed him the bill. He immediately got in touch with his mom's electric company, Penelec.

Once alerted to the large bill the company assured him that it was all a mistake. The decimal on their bill had been placed in the wrong place. The bill was only supposed to be $284.46 which is a tad bit high but not, 'have a heart attack' high.

After receiving the bill she also sent a picture of it to the Erie Times-News. They wrote an article about it and a viral news story was born.

First Energy (the parent company of Penelec) spokesman Mark Durbin, said that he had no idea what could have caused the error.

"I can’t recall ever seeing a bill for billions of dollars. We appreciate the customer’s willingness to reach out to us about the mistake" he told the Newspaper.

For Horomanski, it's been the talk of the town. Her friends regularly call and text her to talk about the crazy bill and how her story is appearing in publications like Time magazine. Thinking back on it, there is just something that everyone can relate to about the absurd bill and how bad things could have been.

Horomanski said: "My son Mike and I were both saying, almost simultaneously, 'Holy bologna, could you imagine if I had that automatic payment and it just came out of the account?' I could not stop thinking about this."