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What's the best excuse you ever gave for being late for work?

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A new CareerBuilder.com study found that more than a quarter (26 per cent) of workers admit to being tardy at least once a month, and 16 per cent are late once a week or more. </br>Paul Vasarhelyi/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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The survey found that traffic was the most common excuse employees (31 per cent) give as a reason why they are late. Other excuses include sleeping in, having to drop off the kids at daycare or school, bad weather and public transportation delays. </br> But there are some pretty outrageous excuses employees gave for why they are late. Here are the top ones.</br>Polina Nefidova/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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An employee dropped her purse into a coin-operated newspaper box and couldn’t retrieve it without change (which was in the purse).</br>Darryl Dick/The Globe and Mail

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An employee accidentally left the apartment with his roommate’s girlfriend’s shoes on and had to go back to change.</br>Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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An employee’s angry wife had frozen his truck keys in a glass of water in the freezer.</br>Miranda Zeegers/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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An employee got a late start because she was putting a rain coat on her cement duck in her front yard (because rain was expected later that day).</br>Bernd Klumpp/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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An employee’s car wouldn’t start because the breathalyzer showed he was intoxicated.</br>Laura Leyshon/The Globe and Mail

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An employee attempted to cut his own hair before work and the clippers stopped working, so he had to wait until the barber shop opened to fix his hair.</br>Jupiterimages

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An employee’s car was attacked by a bear (he had photographic evidence).</br>Hnin Khine/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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An employee drove to her previous employer by mistake.</br>Jupiterimages/Getty Images

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An employee claimed to have delivered a stranger’s baby on the side of the highway.</br>Kati Molin/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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Do you have a great excuse for being late for work that you heard, used yourself or your employee used? Tell Globe Careers! </br> E-mail us at careerquestion@globeandmail.com or leave a note in the comments section. We’ll compile and post them.</br>Gert Vrey/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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