II’m a cricket journalist from Sydney and in 2019 I was in Manchester to cover The Ashes. After dinner, we had a beer at the Malmaison Hotel. I’m pretty picky about beer and love English bitters. I asked the bartender if he had any ale. She offered me a European Pilsner, but in the end I got a Deuchars IPA.
There were some cricketers in the bar so I chatted with them while I distractedly tapped my card into the reader to pay for my beer. The bartender said it didn’t work and told me to try again and put the pin in. I did. She then asked if I wanted a receipt. Never ask for a receipt. I’m a bit careless and not very attentive when it comes to money. I wasn’t even wearing glasses.
At first I said no, but when she left I thought there was something strange about the interaction and asked for a receipt. She printed it out and put her hand over her mouth. When I asked what the problem was, she kept saying “Oh no!” I became wary. She showed it to me and the bill was just over £55,000. I said, “Oh God, you’re going to fix this, right?”
Six months ago, I got a call from my bank saying someone had skimmed my card and someone was trying to buy a six-pack of beer in Sydney’s western suburbs. It’s not a place where I usually buy beer, so I didn’t have to pay anything. That’s what I thought that day. There’s no way a bank would charge £55,000 for a beer. I spoke to the bar manager. He reassured me that it was their mistake and that I would not be left out with any money.
I’ve written books, raised children, and tried to be kind, but my tombstone will read: Here lies the man who paid $100,000 for beer.
The next morning, my wife called me and asked me what I did last night. She knew I loved Manchester and wanted to put a down payment on a house in the city. She said that approximately A$102,500 was missing from our bank account. Nearly $100,000 in beer costs and $2,500 in bank fees. The next night I went back to the bar to discuss it and the person who made the mistake noticed me and ran.
I think what happened was that while I was entering my PIN, a number was added to the end of the price. It was the bar’s mistake, but maybe he should have worn glasses.
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At the time I was the chief cricket correspondent for an Australian newspaper. I thought it might be an interesting story, so I called them and explained what happened. They weren’t really interested so I tweeted about it. I have never seen such a reaction. I got calls from every newspaper in the UK, every radio station and newspaper in Australia. My friend in Los Angeles called me because this story was reported on CNN. I’m an old-school journalist who’s always been told that you’re not the story, so the attention was a little uncomfortable.
Many eyebrows were raised as to how the humble journalist had that much money in his bank account, but it was in an overdraft account attached to my mortgage. I paid the first half of the couple’s house for the beer.
I ended up getting a full refund, but it took a few weeks and the money didn’t come all at once.
I currently host a podcast called Cricket et Al with fellow journalist Gideon Haig. During last year’s Ashes, we returned to that hotel to revisit the crime scene and record the episodes from there. It was strange to go back. I ordered the same beer but became more wary of the amount I would be charged.
This story will follow me for the rest of my life. You can’t mention the price of something without someone saying, “At least it’s not a $100,000 beer.” All I wanted was a quiet nightcap.
In a way, I was glad it happened. In life, you want to achieve something that will make you stand out. I’ve written six books, become a cricket writer, raised children and tried to be kind, but this will be written on my tombstone. Beer. “It’s the most important thing that happened in my life. I might have been better off being the person who invented penicillin, or the person who wrote Ulysses, or a really good cricket writer, but no, I’m the most expensive person in the world.” He’s a beer drinker.
As told by Isabel Aron
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