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Wed 7 Oct, 2009 12:49 pm
Quote:Fw: A well-planned retirement
From The London Times:
Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses.
It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars 1 pound (about $1.40) and coaches 5 (about $7).
This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work.
"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "we'd better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant..."
"Err ... no", said the Council, "that parking lot is your responsibility."
"Err ... no", said Bristol Zoo Management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn't he?"
"Err ... NO!" insisted the Council.
Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at 400 pounds (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over 3.6 million pounds ($7 million).
And no one even knows his name.
that's some nice work if you can get it
Wish I could have been there!
Wish I could have been there!
@panzade,
I believe that's a Crossman she's holding, there.
@DrewDad,
Yeah, I would find it hard to believe that someone could pull a scam like this off for that long without someone questioning about where the proceeds were going.
@Reyn,
Sounds plausible enough to me.
@roger,
I've got this
special house I'd like to sell you.
@Reyn,
From you, I would want to see the title.
@Roberta,
I would be more than happy to sit down and go over your insurance coverage on that thing. I shudder to think of the liability issues you could be subject to.
@Roberta,
that old bridge looks in need of a paint job.
you give me and my boys a check now for materials, and we'll start tomorrow...
Of course it's old. That's one of its charms. It's an antique. A paint job would destroy the original finish (I learned that from watching the Antiques Road Show on PBS). As for liability, hey, you jump; it's your problem.
Just think. A genuine antique that connects Manahattan (aka Noo Yawk, Noo Yawk) to, of all places, Brooklyn. I'm offering this deal at a mere pittance, potholes included at no extra charge.
@Roberta,
How come, when you got it, it's a priceless antique and when I buy it, it turns back into old junk overnight?
This bridge was finished in 1883. It's a genuine antique, Mr. Grump, whether I own it or you own it. As for the urban legend regarding its sale,
"References to 'selling the Brooklyn Bridge' abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity. For example, "If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you." References are often nowadays more oblique, such as 'I could sell you some lovely riverside property in Brooklyn ... '. George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists. "
In my research, I learned that the first person to jump off the bridge did so in 1885. He died.
Look at the history here, not to mention the architecture. I'm thinking about having an auction. Get your bids in early.
DD if you want your news hot off the press " Keep up to date with A2K…..Don’t wait till they plagiarize it from here:
Post: # 3,766,483
Wed 23 Sep, 2009 08:01 am
You heard it hear first…
Outside Lincoln Park Zoo is a parking lot with spaces for about 150 cars and 8 coaches. It has been manned 6 days a week for 23 years by the same charming and very polite attendant with a ticket machine. The charges are $5.00 per car and $15.00 per coach.
Apparently yesterday he did not turn up for work. The Zoo management phoned the City Hall to ask them to send a replacement attendant. They replied, that parking lot is your responsibility.
The Zoo replied, 'the attendant was employed by the City Hall... wasn't he?'
The City said, 'What attendant?'…
Gone missing from his home is a man who has been taking the parking fees amounting to about $1,400.00 per day for the last 23 years!
BTW: Has anyone seen Wandel recently?
Try, the blue guy wrote:Has anyone seen Wandel recently?
I spotted an American here in Paris living great life...
@DrewDad,
This one wrenched a tear even though I don't believe it:
Quote:THE TABLECLOTH
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities.
When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. and on Dec 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm - hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church. By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry.
The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church.
The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job. What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
(re-post from a forwarded email...)
@sozobe,
And a week later, the pastor discovered that he had completely refurbished an abandoned church. His was ready and waiting three blocks to the east.
And there you have it; the rest of the story.
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