Parks employees fired for driving Zambonis to fast-food....

Boise parks employees fired for driving Zambonis to fast-food drive-thru

at 18:33 on November 22, 2006, EST.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Two employees of Boise's ice rink have been fired for making a midnight fast-food run in a pair of Zambonis.

An anonymous tipster reported seeing the two big ice-resurfacing machines chug through a Burger King drive-thru and return to the rink shortly after midnight Nov. 10. The squat, rubber-tired vehicles, which have a top speed of about eight kilometres an hour, drove 2.4 kilometres to the restaurant.

The Zamboni operators, both temporary city employees whose names and ages were not released by officials, had to drive through at least one intersection with a traffic light on their late-night creep from Idaho Ice World.

"They were fired immediately," said Parks Department director Jim Hall.

"We're pretty sure it was just the one time. When we interviewed them, they didn't seem to be too concerned about it."

"I don't think they understood the seriousness of it."

Hall said neither the US$75,000 Zambonis, nor their $10,000 blades appeared damaged but the city could charge the employees with operating an unlicensed motor vehicle on a public street.