Airport staff who made a last-ditch effort to reunite a car with its owner two years after the vehicle was abandoned say it has now been claimed.
The blue 2018 reg Suzuki Swift was left at New Plymouth Airport in New Zealand back in March 2020.
Fed-up bosses last week sent out a plea but whoever came forward would have needed deep pockets - the car had clocked up nearly £5,000 in parking fees.
Since being left, workers have been waiting and waiting for the owner to come and collect it but the motor continued to sit at the car park.
The airport's chief executive David Scott even took out an advert in a local newspaper.
His ad in April's edition of the Taranaki Daily News said the car would be towed in “the coming weeks” if the registered owner did not make themselves known.
Someone was reading - but not the owner.
The airport boss said: “It’s been taken by a finance company who had a claim to it – there was outstanding debt on it.”
Their public appeal was been met with silence as they tried to track down exactly who owns it.
‘’We’ve done a bit of research, but it’s all been a bit difficult," he last week, before the finance company stepped forward.
"We have actually done a lot over the last year or so, but the owner’s trail has gone dead. We were unable to locate the individual - they'd literally disappeared in thin air.
"People are welcome to come and park in our lovely car park, but obviously when a car is sitting there too long it does obviously become a bit cost prohibitive for people."
It comes after a British mum has solved the mystery behind a random car which was parked on her driveway for almost a week by what she thought was a holidaymaker.
Debbie Flynn was furious when the silver Vauxhall Mokka first appeared next to her garage last Tuesday.
She spent seven days wondering how the motorist had unlocked the gates to her driveway in Sheldon, Birmingham, and parked there.
Debbie said it was "a complete mystery" as if the car "had just dropped out of the sky".
The mum-of-two, who lives next to Birmingham International Airport, suspected that fraudsters had sold her drive as a cheap parking spot for those jumping on a flight.
Her confusion continued when police confirmed that the car was not stolen while her landlord said he knew nothing about it, reports Birmingham Live.
She said: "The cheeky gits opened my gate and parked it and shut the gates after leaving it on the grass.
"The police officer who came to see us said he had never seen anything like this in all his years."
