Then, one day, 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 it to send them another parking agent.
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 every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about £560 per day -- for 25 years.
Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over £7 million pounds ....... and no one even knows his name.
This is quite funny, but according to Snopes, it's a hoax.
In reference to the Bristol Zoo, at least, this tale is purely the stuff of fiction rather than fact. The Bristol Zoo says it has never experienced any confusion over parking attendants, and that it has several attendants and more than one car park, none open to coaches. Moreover, in response to our inquiry about the tale, a Bristol Zoo representative told Snopes:
We have had numerous similar enquiries lately but I can assure you that this rumour is not true.
A version of this story did appear in the Bristol Evening Post back in 2007, but it was as part of a feature on urban myths published to coincide with April Fool's Day, not as a reporting of a real-life event.
