Outside England 's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant....The fees for cars ($1.40),for buses (about $7) .

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 booth 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 dollars ......and no one even knows his name.

I sure hope that's a true story !

Employee of the month for 25 years straight I wish it was true.

Why did you have to ruin the fun? I too was hoping it was true!

We had here an enterprising guy that actually did that with a public boat ramp on Gov land to access the Mississippi River. He had a cabin on a lot he leased, owned by the USA and administered by the Corpse of Engineer's, charged $5 to use the ramp and he did a brisk biz with summer fisher folk and duck hunters. Not sure how he got caught, but he was kicked out and his very large cabin was torn down. LOL

Here's a true story for ya.
There is a good size gravel pit outside of town near a smaller place where hillbillies live.
There was always equipment left at the pit and it was sometimes subject to vandalism-busted windows in the payloader etc.
Anyway this one enterprising young lad who lived nearby approached the workers one day and offered to "watch' their equipment so it wouldnt get vandalized,for a small fee.
They put the hillbilly kid on the payroll at a nominal fee and he did an awful good job of watchman.Nothing in the pit got vandalized after that,lol.

You mean bushbillies?

If you live in the city of St. Louis near the ballpark, you don't dare leave the house on game nights, because you'll come home and find your front yard and driveway packed with cars that enterprising young Africans charged a fee to park and guard them. Long gone when you get home to call the tow trucks of course.

That story sort of reminds me of some land my father owned on a local river with a good size creek tributary that emptied into the river.

Locals launched their boats there for years, and some kid about 12 -14 yrs old would stand out at the road entrance and charge $2 to launch a boat.

My father knew about it, and just laughed and let it go ...One day my father and I trailered the jon boat and headed over to his river property to take a boat ride.

Sure enough that enterprising kid was standing out at the entry road, and I'm thinking boy is this kid going to get it, we stopped and the boy said $2 to launch...

My father, the owner looks over at me and smiles, reaches for his wallet and pays him!, Lol..
.That was just my fathers sense of humor, we laughed about it for years.

ky_coyote_hunter ----they don't make people like that anymore.....Good for you both.....jk

A farmer near a NASCAR track charged people to park in his pasture. The IRS couldn't dispute the income he reported so they got a helicopter and counted the cars during each race day. Was good while it lasted.

they probably recovered 1/100th of what the helicopter cost.

Thanks jk,

My father was a great people person, quite a character, and a very good moral man.

If they used an army reserve unit chopper or a police department chopper etc. their costs would have been lower than you may anticipate. Also the fines for incorrect filing along with the interest charges are where the real cost to the taxpayer lie.

Bryce

Love it!

Good 'ol fashioned extortion like back in the day. Would fit in good on our East Coast.