A driver who left his car with one of the ‘meet and greet’ parking services at Bristol Airport has told how he was woken in the middle of the night while on holiday because staff at the car park had started driving his car around.
Guy Adams said the staff at the concierge service run by ‘Parking 4 You’, probably didn’t realise his top of the range £100,000 car had a sophisticated tracking and communication system, and he was able to follow his car’s movements for 40 minutes as the staff at the car park went for a drive in it.
Describing the scenario as ‘everyone’s worst nightmare’, Mr Adams said his car told him through an app on his phone that it had been left unlocked with its windows down, and when no one at the car park would answer the phone, he set off the car’s alarm remotely from his holiday in Spain and left messages with the company telling them that unless they provided proof it had been left securely, he would keep on setting the alarm off.
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The scenario played out when Mr Adams, who lives near Bristol, dropped his Range Rover at the Parking 4 You ‘meet and greet’ service at Bristol Airport last month ahead of a holiday to Spain.
He said everything was fine until he kept getting woken up at 4am one night to his phone receiving notifications. It was his car, a Range Rover Sport, telling him it was on the move. The new car has a highly sophisticated tracking and communications system and Mr Adams was able to not only tell where it was, but also how fast it was going, and even that the windows were open.
For the next 40 minutes, the car was driven around the car park next to the A38 near Bristol Airport – Parking 4 You is a private company not associated with the airport’s parking systems – until it finally stopped moving. But it was left unlocked with the windows open.
Mr Adams tried calling the firm in the middle of the night, but no one answered, and in the morning, when it was still left insecure 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 and began communicating via messages, telling the staff there that he would keep setting off the alarm until they could provide photographic proof that it was locked, with the windows up.
He did receive that, in the form of a screenshot of pictures on someone else’s phone. The experience has left him vowing not to use the company again.
“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,” he said. “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,” he said. In fact, his car had been driven to a field near Winscombe, around eight miles from the airport.
“It never left the car park at all, but it’s more the fact that they left my car open and the windows open. 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’,” he added.
Bristol Live has approached Parking 4 You about what happened to Mr Adams’ car and a response is awaited.
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