A Well-Planned Retirement

[Ray S S]

Greetings, Here is an article that is supposed to have been published in "The London Times".:

Outside England's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses.

For 25 years, it's parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant...
The fees for cars ($1.40), for buses (about $7.00).

Then, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up; so
the zoo management called the city council and asked them to send them another
parking attendant.

The council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the zoo's own
responsibility.

The zoo advised the council that the attendant was a city employee. The city
council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the city payroll.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa, somewhere on the coast of Spain or France or Italy,
is a man who'd apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own
and then had simply begun to show up everyday, commencing to collect and keep
the parking fees, estimated at about $560 dollars per day......for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over $7 million dollars....

And no one even knows his name.

 

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[dirt doctor]

Interesting post Ray , I'm glad that you noted it was "supposed" to have been published in "The London Times". Seems a little far fetched that he could have gotten away with it for so long . Although a few years back there was a guy collecting money in San Francisco from people before they could deposit their money in the numbered pay slot box .He didn't do it for very long and I never heard of him getting caught for it .

 

[stefen]

Recently, a Public Works client was having problems with an adjacent Public School District parking lot and after hours gang activities. (In California, public schools are not answerable to City, County or State governments...and told the City to pound sand...)

Our research into the public records indicated that the parking lot was actually owned by the City...

Apparently, at one time (maybe 50 years ago when the school was built), the city made an agreement with the School District that the District could use the property for a parking lot expansion...this, however, was a verbal agreement...and no record can be found by either party...

Since then, the City fenced and locked down the parking lot and informed the School that they. could in turn, pound sand...

This type of property exchange happens more frequently than we are willing to admit...

 

[FarmerChick]

wow that was a cool story Ray
wonder if it was true??

I bet things like that do happen. but not for me. I would try something like that and be in jail the next day. I am one of those unlucky types..


worst thing is...this thread has me thinking how sneaky can I be to earn a free buck and scam someone. now that is not a good thing haha

 

[crazyjarhead]

I'd say so. How can this kind of thing go on and nobody has a clue. I think I'll give it a try

 

[Ray S S]

dirt doctor, Yes it does seem a little far-fetched with a few holes in the story that makes
you question it. But I thought it was kind of interesting how it happened. It does seem
kind of funny , after all those years that he never missed a day or that no one even knew
his name. It seems only natural that he would get acquainted with a co-worker sometime
during that time. unless he was known by a nic-name. That is an interesting story from
you, too. The guy must have got caught. LOL. Thanks for your reply.

stefen, hmm, too bad for the school. They are probably hurting without the parking area.
Thanks for an interesting and comparable story.

farmer chick, well. it is 'supposed' to have been published in that London newspaper, but
as you probably know, not everything put out in emails is full truth. But it does make for
interesting reading. I don't know how he got away with it for so many years without
getting caught. Thank you for you comment.

Crazyjarhead, If you tried it, you would probably be like me and get caught before I really
had much of a profit. I would probably get caught before the first day was up.

 

[dallgire]

i came up with $5,096,000.00
$560 a day times 7 days a week times 52 weeks a year times 25 years

but either way what a genius!!!!!

 

[Ray S S]

dallgire. He was lucky it worked out for him. He is siting pretty now. But I still don't understand
how he got away with it for so long without ever getting found out, some way or another. LOL.

 

[dallgire]

yea i know its crazy i mean the manager at the zoo never asked "hey since when does the city collect parking money from our zoo?"
He must have had all the answers already worked out!
But man could you imagine! $5million in 25years!!!! Yea that would be amazing!

 

[dallgire]

oh yea an TAX FREE!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Not much different from the people the police arrest because they say they are doctors and are found out that not only are they not a doctor, they have never even been to a medical school at all...

 

[packerbacker]

Some years back I was driving through Kansas on a pothole infested highway. Then, what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, here's this lady in a toll booth charging me a couple bucks to go a few more miles on this piece of crap road. I swear she was doing the same thing.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Some years back I was driving through Kansas on a pothole infested highway. Then, what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, here's this lady in a toll booth charging me a couple bucks to go a few more miles on this piece of crap road. I swear she was doing the same thing.

The toll was for the scenery.......