Bristol Zoo car park attendant UL

[stu neville]

The Bristol Evening Post ran this a couple of years ago as, ironically, part of an article on ULs, but has since acquired a life of its own, culminating in an appearance in the "Cuttings" section at the end of The News Quiz a few weeks ago.

Outside Bristol Zoo there is a car park for 150 cars and 8 coaches. There also used to be a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars £1 and coaches £5.

This parking attendant worked there for all of 25 years , then one day just didn't turn up for work...
"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant" ......
"Err no", said the Council, "that car park is your responsibility" ...
"Err no", said Bristol Zoo Management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn' t he?" .....
"Err NO!"
Living in Spain is a bloke who had been taking daily the car park fees amounting to an estimated £400 per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years.

Great story, but completely untrue - Snopes has it nailed here, and the Evening Post itself has been forced into restating that the whole thing's gribble as the legit car park attendants at the Zoo are getting grief.

Any other sightings in the mass media?

 

[Peripart]

Bugger! I heard that on Radio 2, and so I knew it was true... as a result, I've told at least one other person that this really happened.

That's quite embarrassing, because I'm usually the first person to send a Snopes link back to anyone who sends me a "you must read this!" email.

 

[escargot]

:lol: pwnd

 

[OneWingedBird]

FWIW, i did once see this done for real by some squatters at The Sportsman hotel in Headingley, on a match day!

I think that was a few months before the place mysteriously burnt down.

 

[AMPHIARAUS]

The Bristol Evening Post ran this a couple of years ago as, ironically, part of an article on ULs, but has since acquired a life of its own, culminating in an appearance in the "Cuttings" section at the end of The News Quiz a few weeks ago.

Outside Bristol Zoo there is a car park for 150 cars and 8 coaches. There also used to be a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars £1 and coaches £5.

This parking attendant worked there for all of 25 years , then one day just didn't turn up for work...
"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant" ......
"Err no", said the Council, "that car park is your responsibility" ...
"Err no", said Bristol Zoo Management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn' t he?" .....
"Err NO!"
Living in Spain is a bloke who had been taking daily the car park fees amounting to an estimated £400 per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years.

Great story, but completely untrue - Snopes has it nailed here, and the Evening Post itself has been forced into restating that the whole thing's gribble as the legit car park attendants at the Zoo are getting grief.

Any other sightings in the mass media?

Sorry no sighting of the UL but somewhere, someone is really doing this. Probably some clamper scumbag.

 

[Stormkhan]

I know of a West End department store that suffered from a similar "creative income" scheme ...

First day of sale, when there are loads of temporary sales staff and extra cash tills, one bloke, smartly dressed, enters with his own till - complete with decent float - sets up and proceeds to take for merchandise. During his lunch hour he persuaded another member of staff to cover for him. He returns then, just before closing, bags up the contents of the till then walks out the front door.

Cost of scheme - a days work and a cash till. Result - several thousand pounds. A sound investment. This was before chip 'n' pin and most of the "temporary tills" didn't process credit card transactions.

This scheme is obviously similar to the carpark one ... but for those who don't like outdoor work.

 

[LordRsmacker]

I'm gutted this is an UL, it put a smile on my face all weekend when I heard it on the News Quiz.

That said, I'm sure plenty of this goes on. A friend attending a gig at the O2 Arena (the Dome) said that there were loads of carparks nearby, but all had bags over the Pay & Display machines preventing people from paying for 3 hours parking at the normal rate (a couple of quid, I assume) . Instead, gangs of geezers roamed around taking £20 for parking from every car. He said that he coughed up without question, after all, they were all wearing Hi-Viz jackets and gave out tickets. Hmmm, very re-assuring! That to me sounds like either blatant profiteering from NCP or enterprising villains pulling off their own scam. Either way, it's criminal!