The Edmondson Blog

Outside Bristol Zoo there is a car park for 150 cars and 8 coaches. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were £1 for cars and £5 for busses.

Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, the attendant just didn't show up; so the Zoo management rang Bristol City Council and asked them to send them another parking attendant.

The Council did some research and replied that the car park was not their's but was actually owned by the Zoo. The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a Council employee. The Council responded that the attendant had never been on the Council payroll.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain (or some such scenario), is a man who's apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own; and then had simply begun to show up every day, to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about £400 per day - for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over £3,500,000!

And no one even knows his name.