Tuesday 7 July 2009

Urban myth...

...
A Well-Planned Retirement
(From The London Times)

Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses. It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars £1 and coaches £5 .

This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work.

"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "we'd better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant..."

"Err ... no", said the Council, "that parking lot is your responsibility."

"Err ... no", said Bristol Zoo Management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn't he?"

"Err ... NO!" insisted the Council.

Sitting in his villa somewhere on the sun coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at £400 per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over £3.6 million!

And no one even knows his name.

6 comments:

Tuscan Tony said...

Come on Scrobs, we know its you...!

Could you spot me £100k until next century?

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Morning Tuscs!

I only wish...

I just love that yarn! There's a derelict field next to Staplehurst station, where parking is free. Everyone piles in there, avoiding the huge holes, and somehow manage to put their cars down at crazy angles, with just the barest semblance of order...

Loads of people have been trying to buy it for that very reason!

But it costs £3.50 a day to Network Rail's agency just a few yards away, so you can see why they do it...

idle said...

I got pissed off paying Liphook station a parking fee and decided, on spec, to try parking on the open yard of an industrial unit round the corner that had been empty and up for rent for a long time.

It took about ten days for someone else to notice and join my car. Now, you can't get in there if you take a train later than 7.20am.

I should have pretended it was mine.

lilith said...

That's a splendid tale, Scrobbers. Made I laff.

Trubes said...

Marvellous Scrobs. Good money raising venture, what an enterprising chap. Thanks for your comments on my site, it's good to be back again amongst friends.

Hope all are well at Scrobs Towers.

Di.xx

Philipa said...

Great story :-)