The owner of a £100,000 Range Rover was stunned to discover that airport parking staff took his car out for a spin while he was on holiday.
Guy Adams only discovered what the joyriding staff were up to thanks to a sophisticated tracking and communication system which let him track the car’s movement.
Mr Adams dropped his car off at the Parking 4 You ‘meet and greet’ service at Bristol Airport last month ahead of a holiday to Spain.
In what he has described as ‘everyone’s worst nightmare’ Mr Adam was awoken on holiday by notifications on his phone at 4am that his Range Rover Sport was on the move.
Thanks to the car’s state-of-the-art tracking and communications system Mr Adams was able to not only tell where it was, but also how fast it was going.
A Range Rover Sport similar to Guy Adams’s vehicle. In what he has described as ‘everyone’s worst nightmare’ Mr Adams was awoken on holiday by notifications on his phone at 4am that his Range Rover Sport was on the move (stock image)
Thanks to the car’s state-of-the-art tracking and communications system Mr Adams was able to spy on his car. The car was driven around the car park as well as to a field near Winscombe, Somerset, around eight miles from the airport
For the next 40 minutes, the car was driven around the car park next to the A38 near Bristol Airport until it finally stopped moving. But it was left unlocked with the windows open.
His car was also driven to a field near Winscombe, Somerset, around eight miles from the airport.
Shocked at what he was witnessing, Mr Adams tried calling the firm in the middle of the night, but no one answered.
In the morning, when it was still left unsecure and he still couldn’t make contact with the firm, he used his phone in Spain to trigger the car’s alarm – and kept doing it while trying to get someone at the parking lot to answer the phone.
Eventually, he got through told the staff that he would keep setting off the alarm until they could provide photographic proof that it was locked, with the windows up.
Mr Adams said: ‘These people didn’t realise there’s a tracking system on the car, which lets me know if it’s moved, someone’s tried to get in, anything.
Mr Adams demanded picture proof from the car parking company that his £100,000 vehicle was in fact secure
‘I’d been away for a week when suddenly my phone starts going mad in the middle of the night. The car was being driven around.
‘You hear about cases where that happens, but I thought that was with those airport parking places away from the airport – I thought this one was reputable, it’s a meet and greet service from the airport itself.
‘It never left the car park at all, but it’s more the fact that they left my car open and the windows open.
He added: ‘I couldn’t get through to anyone and this felt like everyone’s worst nightmare. The last resort was to set the alarm off – I thought “at least that will get their attention back in Bristol”.’
