HOUSTON -- An elderly woman got a shocking bill in the mail from the City of Houston. The bill was for $4,700. 

“Over $4,000!” said Annabelle Baylous. “This is the worst Christmas present I could get.”

Baylous said that she’s been paying somewhere around $10 a month for as long as she could remember.

“I'm old, but I'm not crazy. I'm not paying that,” said Baylous.

The city billed Baylous, who is on a fixed income, for 495,000 gallons of water for her home that only has one bathroom and one person living there.

While the city claims she used nearly 500,000 gallons of water, we learned that even if she left her faucet running for three months without a break, it wouldn't come close to that amount.

In fact, the bill claims she used enough water to fill three large tanks at the Downtown Aquarium.

“Even if she ran the water continuously, it wouldn’t generate the amount of gallons she’s being billed for,” said John Cantu, plumber.

11 News Defenders searched her kitchen, bathroom and outside her home for current leaks or evidence of past ones.  We didn’t find anything.

The city agreed to reduce the bill from $4,000 to $1,000, which is still a big jump from Baylous’ $10 a month bill.

11 News Defenders discovered the woman had a new water meter installed, but according to the city, if the meter was busted it would never hike the water usage up.

The plumber didn’t agree.

“That's not true. There are cases where the city has a high water bill because they read it wrong,” said Cantu.

But whatever the reason, Baylous is still stuck with the bill and has a choice to make: Buy her medicine or pay for water she claims she didn’t use.

“It's terrible. I've just had a heart attack. It seems as though they're trying to give me another one,” said Baylous.

The city has done some investigating, and they believe Baylous had a leak in an old pipe the city abandoned years ago. The pipe is located in her backyard.

But the plumbers, who met the 11 News Defenders at her house, said if that were the case, there would be a giant pool of water. They didn’t find any water.

The city said they will continue to investigate the situation, and Baylous' bill could still be reduced.