Brain Teasers
Parking Scam
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Sir Col was touring Europe in his car and arrived in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Upon locating a parking space next to a lake he placed enough money in the parking meter for one hour. Two hours later he returned to his car to find a parking ticket on his windscreen.
After a little thought he came up with an idea, and in thirty minutes he was able to drive out of the city without any need of paying his fine. How did he perform this scam?
After a little thought he came up with an idea, and in thirty minutes he was able to drive out of the city without any need of paying his fine. How did he perform this scam?
Answer
He went to the nearest police station and told them, "It is rather embarrassing, but I parked my car a couple of hours ago and I've been looking for it for the last hour. All I know is that I parked it near a lake."The Swiss police being entirely sympathetic of his predicament and wanting to please a visitor to their city mounted a search operation for his car. They were so happy to have found it that they sent him on his way, feeling they'd done a good deed for an unfortunate tourist.
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Comments
good though the answer is out of the world.
sorry... i was gonna say thats a really good teaser
Indeed, it is good.
Jul 26, 2002
Perhaps Sir Col could have torn up the ticket and left Zurich, never to return. Would the police would put out a man-hunt for an unpaid parking ticket?
nice one! i enjoyed it =)
i thought he put more money in the meter and told the police
Great situation teaser, one of my faves I've seen. Good work.
after your comments...ugh
Good one! The only (dumb) thing I could think of was that he might have put the ticket on a nearby car, hoping that the driver wouldn't check the license number. (I said it was dumb!)
What a wonderful idea. I will try it next time I get a ticket!
I thought it might have had something to do with the currency exchange, but the declared answer works well, too..
Sep 20, 2002
Uh huh. The Swiss must be different then. If you tried that anywhere near where I live, the cops would say sorry but we're busy busting minor drug offenders.
Oct 05, 2002
Sir Col, ur a bad influence ;)
I didn't think that they would let him off so easy...but that was a realy good one!
Ditto to the first comment
kinda weird... OK... not what I woulda said but that works too...
I don't uderstand the answer. When an infringement notice is issued, the details of the car are entered into an official log. You can't just tear up the ticket or ignore it. What does it matter if the police find the car for him? Won't the infringement still be recorded?
very interesting. but i could never get it because of the lake. are there that many lakes in zurich? i saw the city featured on a tv show and i don't remember seeing lakes.
If only that would work in NY...
Nice teaser!
Dam! gotta try that! That was good!
That's wonderful! I'll have to remember that for future reference *joking*
there's a bit of sarcasm against the police there...
Clever but not very ethical! Nice teaser!
if only i cud pass off as a tourist in NY!! *sigh*
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