Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Job Security!?? Yes, another non political post....I can't resist.

Wed. PM : JUST GOT A COMMENT SAYING THIS ISN'T TRUE! SORRY! I STILL THINK IT'S A FANTASTIC SET UP...AS DID DAVID SMITH, WHO ALERTED ME. THANKS, DAVID (I THINK!)
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 (about $1.40) and coaches £5 (about $7).

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 coast of Spain (presumably), is a man who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at £400 (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over £3.6 million ($7 million - or $280,000 every year for 25 years)!

And, no one even knows his name.

This story is from the London Times and is, apparently, TRUE! I just can't get it out of my mind so I thought I'd share it with you...isn't that SOMETHING?

z

28 comments:

cube said...

lol! Some people know how to play the system better than others.

Chuck said...

Government at it's finest

Tony C said...

For some reason outside of moral boundry...stories like this make me smile.

There's just something great about sticking it to the man...

shoprat said...

Sounds like an Urban Legend but stranger things have been true.

I don't know where you studied your ethics but I think you missed a few lessons. Molly Weasley in The Order of the Phoenix

Anonymous said...

Chuck - No kidding! The left hand never knows what the right hand's doing.

If they didn't even know his name, sounds like he was treated like he wasn't there. Wasn't he paid a salary?

He sure got the last laugh.

Pris

Ducky's here said...

Bet z's at the Michael Jackson gig.

heidianne jackson said...

man! i wish i'd thought of this :) z, our island would be oh so much closer to reality if THAT had been the case!!

Anonymous said...

I hate people who are smarter than me. Well, another example of how my high school counselor let me down.

Z said...

This just cracked me UP!
I have to admit it's so unethical, but there IS something to someone sticking it to the man....whoever the man IS! No harm, no loss? Who knows!! Is that enough reason not to be ethical? naaa!

Pasadena Closet Conservative said...

You gotta love a guy with entrepreneurial spirit!

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

The average "homeless panhandler" makes twice as much money per year as the average person that donates to them.

HoosierArmyMom said...

A classic example of how good Gooberment is at running things! If they can't keep track of a zoo parking lot, how do you thing they are doing with gooberment health care? This is priceless!!!!

Bloviating Zeppelin said...

I LOVE that! And for 25 years??!!? What balls!

This guy needs to be put in charge of GM.

BZ

Z said...

GREAT responses! Thanks..
BZ..GM President..why NOT?

HAM..."goobermint", I love it.

Heidianne..that island WOULD be closer! (it can't BE close enough these days)

Beamish, I've heard that's true.

SO glad you enjoyed this, too.

Thomas Lawrence said...

A weakness in the bureaucracy! How could this happen?

Chuck said it right...anaother fine example

Tom said...

Incredible!!

But are you sure he's in Spain? Do you know something that they don't?

I would have picked the Bahamas... Wonderful sun, great beaches, beautiful ocean sunsets...need I go on?

GM Roper said...

BZ sayz: "This guy needs to be put in charge of GM"

Nah, my wife already has that job!

GM Roper

Z said...

GM, that is ADORABLE!! I hope she runs GM better than the CEo's did! (Smile)

xxx

Joe said...

What a guy!

I'm looking for a parking lot to attend as we speak.

Maggie Thornton said...

What a hoot! Here's the "criminal" saying the "bureaucracy" hired him. The Management says okay and 25 years later the guy is a millionaire.

Zoo Management needs an overhaul. I wonder what took him so long?

lovelyprism said...

That is just fabulous! I love it... and all tax free. The man's a genius.

David Smith said...

Great story, even though fabricated...

Google "Bristol Zoo parking" and see the "rest of the story."

Apparently it began in 2007 with an April Fools article in the Bristol Evening Post on Urban Myths.

Which is not to say that it isn't worth trying in some other location...

Maggie Thornton said...

A comment about David Smith's comment: I recently posted about the reprehensible Duke University professor and child rapist dad, Frank Lombard. Among several articles written by someone who had some very good and credible information about Lombard, I found a last post from this same Townhall author. He said he had received a response to his comments about the Duke University 88 (remember the professors that supported Mike Nifong and the prosecution of the Duke Lacrosse players?).

Anyway the author said the Duke 88 had sent him a letter or email, saying that for the moment their interest was in the gay students at Duke and the student's concern that they would be hated and castigated even more now that Lombard was caught and associated with the school. It was a very serious reply.

I left a comment and said I thought the statement was convoluted, and while I didn't know what the Townhall author thought of it, I didn't see what the gay students at Duke had to do with Frank Lombard. Obviously the Duke 88 were using the students to shield the real issue - maybe as an excuse not to make a statement about Lombard.

The next day I received an email from someone living in the area who had some knowledge of the Townhall author and said she thought the Duke 88 comment was a parody.

I emailed the Townhall author and sure enough it was parody! Unless you knew this author's work, I don't know how anyone could guess that.

I immediately took down my own post linking him. Since then, several others on the web have fallen into the same trap.

I'm still smiling about the Bristol Zoo.

Z said...

Well, DAVID SMITH! Good man!
I just corrected the post!
I still like to think it happened..but I do appreciate keeping me 'legal' (Sort of! :-))

Z said...

Maggie, you just never know and can't check EVERYTHING..
though I know most of us DO before posting..
Ah, well....good people will always set us bloggers straight!

XX

Maggie Thornton said...

Z - yes someone will keep us on the straight and narrow, but after all it's just a blog (as the MSM likes to remind us).

David Smith said...

Z.

I did mean well...and did enjoy seeing the story again.

Maybe there's still enough hippie in this old frame to believe that just because something didn't happen doesn't mean there isn't a lot of truth or value in it.

As in, look around, see something that needs doing, take a chance, provide a service, reap the benefit. Sounds vaguely like Adam Smith to me.

Z said...

David, thanks again, and I'm very happy to have you come by. I hope you come again.