**I put this on the RRS site, but I thought it had value here too as a cautionary tale **

We recently cleared off abroad for the week, and arrived at Manchester Airport to go in the long stay and it was full. This meant I had to instead use the short stay - £45 a day - thanks! - right adjacent to Terminal One departures. I put the car right at the very top in the open air near the lifts, one would imagine there are many cameras and it's reasonably secure. It isn't!

When we came back, I approached the car and unlocked it as normal, and immediately noticed it had been ransacked. The pull off panel under the steering column was on the floor, glove boxes open, centre console and tray out, and all the floor mats disturbed. The last one there had me scratching my head till I twigged why. What could be under the floor mats?

Also, the housing around the rear view mirror had been loosened and disturbed.

Nothing much seemed to have been stolen, even CDs etc were left (maybe my wife's taste in music they didn't like - the car is hers now), the only thing I can find missing is a spare new brake light switch that I had in the glove box. The car started fine and drove home OK.

I wasn't sure at first if it was an attempted theft or casual speculative thievery of bits and bobs. However, I found the article >here< that says this:

Quote:

Paper tickets will be scrapped and replaced with ‘chip coins’ – containing data captured from cameras at the barriers.

The system will automatically log the car’s registration plate and time of arrival.

The aim is to end a so-called ‘shuffling’ scam in which cars are left in the airport’s short-stay car parks but the substantial fees are dodged –leaving crooks paying as little as £2.20 for a fortnight’s parking.

A cautionary tale which reinforces why I always take a cab to the airport. I’ve haven’t used an airport carpark in years after hearing stories from friends about cars being dinged, vandalised or stolen. If I had a scuzzy Kia or similar maybe I wouldn’t worry, but a £60k + car? No way would that be left in an airport car park for even an hour.