Joaquín García, Spanish Engineer, Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed

Joaquín García, a retired Spanish engineer, recently made the headlines after his hometown’s City Hall in Cádiz, Spain, for whom he used to work for, accused him of skipping work for 6 years and keeping his salary. “El Funcionario Fantasma,”as the Spanish media dubbed him, came forward and stated that he was being a victim of mobbing and denied the allegations.

According to El Mundo, García started working for the town back in 1990. “We sent him to Aguas de Cádiz and he was in charge of supervising everything at La Martona, the office that looks over the City’s sewer system,” said Jorge Blas Fernández, the supervisor who brought attention to García's case back in 2010.

Blas Fernández added that it was out of nowhere when he thought of García and when he called him to catch up, things seemed a little off, “I called Aguas de Cádiz and they told me they didn’t know anything about him, that they thought he was back working at City Hall. Then, I called him and he told me that he was taking some personal days off so I asked him to come see me. When I asked him, ‘What do you do?’ What did you do yesterday? Last month?’ He didn’t have an answer.”

According to new reports presented during the investigation, García didn’t show up for work in 14 years. He was asked to stand in front of a Judge, who demanded him to pay a 27,000 euros (30,000 USD) fine for his wrongdoing. Sources report, the 69-year-old man was making 37,000 euros (42,000 USD) a year. When the company found out, he had already retired. The fine imposed by the Judge was the maximun, and only posible, punishment at the time.