Canon City woman receives $80k water bill for month of April

CANON CITY, Colo. (KRDO) — A family in Canon City is left wondering how they got a water bill worth more than $80,000 for the month of April.

On the first of the month, Linda Brennenstuhl pays her bills. So when she logged into her Park Center Water account on her phone, and she noticed that her bill had increased dramatically. Brennenstuhl's jaw hit the floor.

"Oh S***! What happened?" asked Brennenstuhl. "We've got lots of leaks somewhere."

According to her April bill, Linda owed $80,037.20. For the month of March, she paid a little more than $40.

"I thought maybe there is a big leak I don't know about."

Brennenstuhl says she immediately went into a panic - asking neighbors to see if their water bills were out of wack and considering whether or not she needed to acquire a job just to pay of her April water bill.

The Canon City resident reached out to Park Center Water to see what exactly went wrong.

"(Park Center Water) said there was a mistake somewhere," said Brennenstuhl. "They told me to give them until Tuesday to get it fixed."

On Monday, Brennenstuhl signed back into her Park Center Water account. Today, her bill appears to have been paid for - reading $0.00.

13 Investigates reached to Park Center Water and asked what happened, and if this is a bigger problem affecting more customers. The water provider declined to comment.

"Well they should've owned up to their mistake," said Brennenstuhl. "Everybody makes mistakes. Own up to it."