Bristol Zoo Car Park Attendant Hoax

This story was first published on July 17th, 2009

Outline

Message claims that a man posing as a car park attendant at Bristol Zoo collected unauthorised parking fees from zoo visitors for 25 years before absconding to Spain to live in luxury on the proceeds of his illegal activities.  

Brief Analysis

The information in the message is untrue. The story is a hoax that has been circulating via email, social networking and even some news outlets for several years.

Examples

Outside Bristol Zoo there is a carpark for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, it’s parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were £1.40 for cars and £7 for buses. 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 carpark was the Zoo’s own responsibility. The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee.The City Council responded that the carpark 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 5 million pounds … and no one even knows his name.

Haha.. brilliant!!

Detailed Analysis

This widely circulated message tells the story of a clever conman who illegally collected money from visitors to Bristol Zoo in the UK by pretending to be a car park attendant. According to the message, the zoo assumed that the car park attendant was employed by the local city council so the conman was able to collect parking fees from visiting cars and coaches over a period of 25 years (23 years in some versions) making around £3.6 million in the process before absconding to Spain to retire in luxury.

The message claims that the fraud was only uncovered when the attendant failed to appear one morning and zoo management contacted the council to arrange a replacement.  

It is certainly an amusing tale. Stories of canny swindlers tend to generate a lot of public interest, but in this case, there is not a shred of truth to the tale. In fact, the story is a hoax that has been circulating via email, social networking and even a few news and entertainment media outlets for over three years. A June 2009 article in Bristol’s Evening Post newspaper  notes:

Touted as a genuine news article, the tale of a Bristol Zoo parking attendant who lined his own pockets with customers’ cash for 23 years before going missing with the loot has set cyberspace alight.

 

But the Evening Post can confirm the story, which has been emailed to thousands of people across the globe in recent months, is nothing more than an urban myth – and the real attendants say the joke is starting to wear thin.

 

Our newsroom, as well as the offices of Bristol Zoo, has been inundated with messages asking if the story is true, particularly as some versions say it has recently appeared in the Evening Post.

Management at Bristol Zoo Gardens has  denied  that there has ever been any confusion about which entity controls car parking attendants. There are two car parks available at the zoo as well as nearby on-street parking. Parking  information and pricing for visitors  is published on the Bristol Zoo’s website:

If you plan to travel by car – we do have two car parks at the Zoo. There is a £3 (cash only) charge for parking and a £1 charge for members.

 

On-street parking is also available on surrounding streets, as short walk from the entrance of the Zoo. These streets are within a residents’ parking scheme area. Charges apply Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm. Free on evenings, weekends and Bank holidays.

 

Day visitors: £3 per car
Members: £1 per car
Corporate, hospitality and business visitors: £3 per car

Thus, not even the per-car fee supposedly charged by the swindler is correct and, although the main zoo car park  does not accommodate coaches, free coach parking is available in nearby streets.   Moreover, it is absurd to suggest that even the most dedicated swindler could have managed to turn up for “work” seven days a week for 25, or even 23, years. Surely over such a time period, the bogus attendant would have taken at least a few days off due to illness or even pure boredom.

The Evening Post notes that it published a version of the tale in 2007 as part of an article about urban myths timed to coincide with April Fools’ Day.

Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/bristol-zoo-car-park-attendant-hoax/