Do You Find This Hard to Believe?

This story came via email, and I thought I would share it.

Outside 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 about $1.40 and coaches about $7. This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 23 years.

Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work.

"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "we'll phone the city and get them to send a new parking attendant..."

"No", said the city officials, "that parking lot is your responsibility."

"No", said Bristol Zoo management, "the attendant was employed by the city, wasn't he?"

"Err ... NO!" insisted the city officials.

Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at over $500 a day for 23 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to millions of dollars.

Apparently, no one even knew his name.

Of course, this is just one more myth that was easily checked out searching Google. Read the true story. This proves once again - everything that comes in your email is not necessarily true. Just the same, I admit the story gave me a good laugh. How did it get started? A version of the story did appear in the Evening Post (Bristol) two years ago – in a feature on urban myths published to coincide with April Fools' Day. Maybe this explains it?