Reporter tracks down owners of abandoned cars at Kansas City airport that have racked up thousands of dollars in fines to see what happened

A reporter tracked down the owners whose abandoned cars had racked up thousands in fines at Kansas City Airport.

Chris Hayes produced an investigative report into the complicated world of airport parking lots.

Here, some cars have been ditched for years – sometimes with their owners having no idea where they are.

In the meantime, they’ve been racking up thousands in fines.

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Which cars have been abandoned at Kansas City Airport?

At Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, a 2017 investigation by Fox found multiple vehicles left in a public parking garage with flat tires, expired or missing plates, and heavy dust buildup.

And when we say heavy dust buildup, we mean so heavy that somebody wrote ‘Move this’ on the windshield of a car.

One SUV had been abandoned right in front of Terminal 1 despite clear ‘no stopping/standing’ signage.

After doing some digging, Hayes and his team found historical Google Earth images which showed it in the same spot as far back as 2012.

And this wasn’t the only one – a silver Honda Pilot was seen to be sat in the same spot on Google Earth from 2012 through to 2017.

In some cases, owners don’t even realize that their cars are sitting in the airport’s parking lot.

One Ford Explorer was registered to a Texas collision repair company, which denied having any knowledge of the car.

Its owner had moved to the Czech Republic and claimed the car was supposed to have been collected by a relative the previous year.

Then there’s the case of a Honda Civic which had been sold to somebody who had never retrieved it and been sitting in the lot for three years.

Airport authorities confirmed to Hayes that cars would be opened when towing was inevitable, and that vehicles would not be deemed to be a security threat unless stolen or linked to a crime.

How much would these fines cost the drivers?

One Nissan pickup had been sitting parked for six months, and the owner was traced to Los Angeles.

Michael Telaney said his relative had been sent to pick up the vehicle but was unable to find it.

“There’s no way I thought the car would be there for that long,” he told Hayes.

His brother headed to the airport to pick up the truck, but was met with a problem trying to leave the parking lot.

That problem being the jaw-dropping parking fine he was expected to pay – $4,140.

That’s what happens when you leave your car alone for six months in a place that charges $23 a day for parking.

The Nissan went back to being abandoned.

Airport parking can be pricey – one Colorado man found that out the hard way when he was charged $20,000 in a case of mistaken identity.

And it’s not just something American travelers have to be wary of.

Analysis found that it was cheaper to park a private jet at this UK airport than it was to park a car.

To see this report on abandoned cars at Kansas City Airport in full, visit Chris Hayes’ YouTube channel.

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