This guy was the perfect Robin Hood, only he kept the proceeds for himself. As my father used to say … “charity starts at home”. He didn’t include car washes or anything special, he followed the cardinal rule of success. Keep it simple! Cheap parking.

I love this guy and can’t quite fathom if it’s the “Robin Hood ‘’ aspect, the audacity and genius of the endeavor or the fact it highlights how inept all our local governments really are from Vancouver to Vladivostok and everywhere in between . But I am somehow happy for this man who benefited from his daring.

A man at the Bristol Zoo in the United Kingdom has been collecting money off every car parked in the car park attached to the zoo. Nobody is entirely sure when (exactly) he started but it was definitely recorded as more than 20-years ago. It is thought, he has been doing this for between 20 and 25 years. He charges 3 quid per car for parking and is an institution in Bristol – everybody knew him. Or thought they did. Teenage kids who befriended him when brought by parents, introduced their children to him years later.

Such a happy fellow. Not a care in the world.

Now for most who don’t know, the Bristol Zoo has two car parks PLUS an overflow parking area that can hold a FURTHER 700 cars on public land designated for recreation. This is a busy zoo.

We are not talking about 10 or so odd parking spots here. This is parking on a massive commercial scale and operational every single day.

And the beauty of this scam is that it is because the attendant WAS NOT at his post one morning, that the scam was revealed. Like the mythical postman who delivers in any weather, for more than 20-years, come rain or shine, this attendant was at his post collecting his parking fee. In cash! He never missed a day and consequently there was no need to investigate the situation.

Like something you pass every day but do not recognize till its gone, this chap just blended into the Bristol panorama.

Who hasn’t got £3.00 on them. It’s cheap by UK standards. Only … it was always actually free.

If you calculate that he only had 500 cars a day for half the days of the year, and then halve that number again just to be conservative, it equals £5 200.00 a week. Tax free. Over 23 years (an average) that’s £ 6.3 million. That’s roughly $8.7 million US dollars. Again :- tax free!

I’m sure there were days when he could have over 1500 cars arrive and park. One parking could be used 3 or 4 times in one day. This made Robin Hood look like a beginner.

His only investment was a high-vis jacket and a cheap sign. Brilliant.

On the Monday morning he didn’t arrive, the A-frame car park sign had a note stuck to it saying –

“Parking Attendant Retired to Spain”.

It was only at this point that the local Council were contacted because people didn’t know who to leave the parking fee money with. After some checking, the Council informed the Zoo that they had never had a person on salary collecting parking fees nor did they charge for parking.

Obviously the zoo hadn’t hired him either. He was simply an opportunist!

How brilliant is that. Nobody knows who this man is, except that he was ever so polite and helpful. If you couldn’t pay – he’d laugh and just say – “I’ll remember you for next time. It’ll be double.” And people returned to honour this arrangement.

Mrs Betty Crocker from Pudding Lane says, “I made sure to give him £6.00 the next time I took the children!”, she was gobsmacked at the news it was always free!

Mr. L. Pride, landlord of “The Red Lion” pub in Bristol told The Gazette that “he always supplied me with pound coins for change and for the gambling machines and pool tables in the pub. I used to give him his Sunday roast for free for providing me weekly with the change requirements to run my machines – saved me going to the bank! But I did always wonder if his beard was fake!”

To the man, whoever you are, who worked hard parking cars in Bristol Zoo, for more than 20-years, who today is relaxed on a deck chair on a Spanish beach enjoying a pint and his well earned retirement.

Good on ya, son! Enjoy that pint, you’ve earned it!

Although in more recent news :- I’ve heard a new bearded bloke from England is selling deck chairs on some public Spanish beach for 3.00 Euro a day, which is really cheap. And nobody knows who he is. But he’s doing a roaring trade!

Could it be …?

PS :- a degree of poetic license has been adopted by the author, from articles published in the print media. He’s hoping to earn 3 quid from Medium for the possibly true story.

Does he know more than he’s letting on. You be the judge.