Santa Paula Del Taco Accidentally Charges Customers Thousands For A Taco

SANTA PAULA (CBS/AP) — What was supposed to be a cheap bite at Del Taco turned out to be small fortune for some Southern California customers.

About 150 people who ate this week at the Mexican-style fast food chain in Santa Paula, were mistakenly charged thousands of dollars for burritos, tacos and soft drinks.

Del Taco spokesman Brian Devenny says the glitch affected ATM and credit-card transactions at one restaurant. Devenny says all charges will be refunded.

"Due to a recent technical issue, various Del Taco customers at the Santa Paula, Calif., restaurant were subject to erroneous charges on their ATM and credit card accounts over the course of a 24-hour period. The credit card processor is aware of the situation, and has contacted the individual banks involved in an effort to reverse the charges as soon as possible. In fact, many customers have already seen charge reversals on their accounts," Devenny wrote in a statement.

Customer Michael Cole says he was surprised when he was charged $4,050 for one CrunchTada Pizza and two beef tacos. He noticed the problem Friday when he tried to withdraw $20 from an ATM and was denied.

Another customer was charged $2,000 for a soda.

KCAL9's Brittney Hopper spoke to one customer who is able to smile now about his $10,000 charge but Dino DeLao says it's really no laughing matter.

On Tuesday, his wife of 19 years went to buy the family some dinner. The bill came to $10.20.

"She bought four hard shell tacos and two regular tacos," says DeLao.

Wednesday morning, they discovered (after a bank call reporting they were bouncing checks all over the place) that they were actually charged $10,220.

"There's no money in my account right now that I can actually go and have a nice Easter," DeLao says. "It took a damper on my life. That's a lot of money."

DeLao was recently laid off from his engineering and fabricator job. His mortgage check bounced and his account continues to be on hold until the money is put back.

While it appears DeLao was charged the most, Del Taco has yet to put his money back.

"It's wrong," he told Hopper, "it should have been put right back in there on that day."

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