Bristol Zoo Car Park Attendant

It is one of those email ‘funnies’ which apparently began on April’s Fool day two years ago - and some people still believe it! Even though it is not true you almost want it to be! As the Bristol Evening Post reports:
“The story in the email being circulated states the car park at Bristol Zoo has been manned by a single attendant for the past 23 years, who had taken advantage of a mix-up between the zoo and the city council“. The car park attendant is said to have had his own ticket machine with Bristol Zoo thinking he was working on behalf of the City Council and the City Council thinking he was working on behalf of Bristol Zoo - but it was only when he no longer turned up that it was found he had actually been working for himself. The story has been circulated on the Internet with thousands of people around the world having a great chuckle at this guy now living it up on the Costa del Somewhere.
Says the Evening Post: “Touted as a genuine news article, the tale of a Bristol Zoo parking attendant who lined his own pockets with customers’ cash for 23 years before going missing with the loot has set cyberspace alight. . . . thousands of people have been emailing the story across the globe.”
When I checked the story in the ‘Evening Post’ one of the comments that followed the article said, “Apparently Terry Wogan read it out as a true story from the BEP on Radio 2 this morning,” a comment made by Paul of Bristol on 16th June 2009. Should I believe it? And should I believe another coment which says, “The News Quiz (BBC Radio 4, Friday June 12 and available online until June 20, 2009) has repeated the story as true. At the very end of the panel show, Phill Jupitus read out a clipping about the story, citing the Bristol Evening Post but without mentioning the ‘myth’ part.” It is reported as ‘true’ by ‘My Telegraph’ but denied by Bristol Zoo and by the Evening Post. What a shame - and such great story!
That’s just a fun story but other stories are not so funny, some untrue stories have cost reputations and even jobs. A recent article by Joe McKeever is titled, ‘Being Responsible’. He talks about the need to check out sources before passing on information that may be questionable or not true. I’m sure many of us have been guilty at some time. But what about when serious authors, politicians, teachers or even preachers make gaffes when using information that turns out not to be true in support of a position they hold to be true? It reminds me of those Bereans in the early Christian church of whom it is said in Acts 17:11 that they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Not even the Apostle Paul could speak or write without being checked out by his readers.
Joe McKeever makes a good case for saying, “Don’t believe everything you read. Think for yourself, no matter whether it’s the daily paper or the evening news, a sermon by your beloved pastor, a book by a respected preacher, or this blog.” And I guess that would go for my blog too. Watch out for the Bristol Zoo parking attendant!