Oops: City of Lubbock Utilities ‘Accidentally’ Sends Customer Obscenely High Bill

There are mistakes, and then there's this.

Mike Toombs said he received a bill from the City of Lubbock Utilities for *checks notes* $52,000.

"It just floored me. I thought 'How could they do this?'" Toombs told KAMC-TV. "Even if I did have a leak, I couldn't have leaked out $52,000 worth of water."

Toombs told the TV station that the charge caused his bank account to go negative $7,800. What happened after he called the City to discuss the bill is the stuff of Onion articles.

The City of Lubbock asked him if he had a water leak. No, really. "Even if I did have a leak, I couldn't have leaked out $52,000 worth of water," Toombs exclaimed to KAMC. After that, someone at the City of Lubbock said it was probably an accounting error. Well, that's possible, but Toombs also claims the City's read of his meter was way off.

Toombs said he has no real idea what caused the initial $52,000 bill, or how it got through the City without someone there catching it.

Thankfully, the City of Lubbock did admit the mistake and issued him a more reasonable bill: $226. They have not, however, issued a statement about the error.

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This isn't the only person in Lubbock to be caught off-guard by a higher-than-expected bill this month. On Thursday, we reported on a local couple who saw their electric bill jump from $191.38 to $718.50. Unlike Toombs' bill, City of Lubbock Utilities said this was not a mistake and they expect full payment.

Of course, both of these instances pale in comparison to the bills some Texans are receiving after February's polar vortex. Toombs' bill was corrected. Plenty of people in Texas are being issued insane electric bills through no fault of their own, and the issue hasn't been fixed...yet, anyway.

It just makes everyone in town kind of wonder what in the world is going on with our local utility company. It's like they are just randomly throwing out numbers and seeing who doesn't notice on autopay or something. If you have autopay, maybe take a glance back and make sure you weren't overcharged without realizing it.

The upside to all of this? Community.

Residents of Lubbock have really come together, politics and religion set aside, to hate on the same companies that have been screwing us over for years. It's nice to see us come together against a common enemy.