A man waiting for a stimulus cheque from the government was stunned to find more than $8 million in his bank account.

Charles Calvin, from Indiana, checked his bank balance over the weekend to find that $8.2 million had been apparently been deposited into his account.

Mr Calvin was waiting to receive $1,700 from the government stimulus package, aimed to help those whose work is affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The stimulus cheques were first sent out on Saturday 11 April and the firefighter was shocked to discover the figure in his account.

“I went to the ATM at the Family Express and once I withdrew $200 out of my account I looked at the available balance still left in my account,” he told WGN.

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“Apparently, my account had $8.2 million in it. I’m like what in the world is going on here?”

Mr Calvin thought there had been an error, so put his card in the ATM again and printed out the receipt, which still showed that he had $8.2 million in his account.

He called his colleague, Captain Samuel Vargas, over to look at the balance, who asked him: “What kind of truck are you buying me?”

Mr Calvin called his bank on Monday morning, who told him that there was no longer $8.2 million in his account, but that his $1,700 stimulus cheque had been deposited.

He told the outlet that “it kind of sucks you go from being a millionaire on paper one second then back to being broke again.”

Mr Calvin added: “But hey, once you’re poor you don’t have anywhere else to go but up.”