A Volkswagen Golf owner is facing a £170,000 parking ticket for leaving their car parked outside a German airport for over a year.
The grey car has apparently been left abandoned by its unknown owner directly in front of the entrance to Berlin Airport.
Vehicles are only permitted to use the car-park for a short period of time – only the first ten minutes are free, 15 minutes costs £4.20, every additional minutes costs £1.60, and an hour of parking totals a full £19.30.
But with a daily parking fee of a whopping £464, the grey Golf has now accumulated a staggering fee of over £170,000.
Airport staff and local authorities have been left scratching their heads over who the car belongs to and why it has been left at the short-term parking lot for such a long period of time.
According to Bild, one potential theory is that the car had been stolen before being left dumped outside Berlin Airport.
German newspaper Berliner Zeitung reached out to Hanover police, as well as the Berlin police but there was no trace of the Golf on record.
Stuttgart-based company APCOA Deutschland GmbH is responsible for the airport’s car park, and its manager told the newspaper that they were aware of the bizarre case and were in contact with the relevant authorities.
The grey car has apparently been left abandoned by its unknown owner directly in front of the entrance to Berlin Airport
Left parked in a prime location directly in front of the airport, authorities have been left scratching their heads over who it belongs to
When asked whether APCOA intends to collect the outstanding parking fees of over £170,000, the company said: ‘Whether parking fees owed in this context can be collected depends on whether the debtor can be identified and has the necessary financial means.’
In 2018, a car left abandoned in the parking building of Waikato Hospital, New Zealand, went unnoticed for more than a year, racking up thousands of dollars in parking fees.
The green Honda was left outside a medical facility covered in grime and dust with messages scribed into its exterior including ‘clean me’, ‘hello’ and ‘fleet vehicle’.
At £3.70 a day for parking, the car would have accumulated fees of about £1,376.
As it turns out, the car was reported as stolen and the owner had been paid out by their insurance company.
A disabled army veteran was also fined for leaving a car in a handicapped space.
Brian Pavey, 88, left his car near at Feethams Leisure Centre car park in Darlington, County Durham, on December 5 when he was fined £100 after a broken ticket machine left him unable to pay the fee.
He was then fined another £100 by Excel Parking for leaving his vehicle in the same place again, with his disability card visible, while he was speaking to the hotel manager about his first fine.
The retired soldier and gamekeeper has said he will take the ‘con merchants’ to court after being threatened with legal action if he refuses to pay the fines totalling £200.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
