PARK AND HIDE
Passengers stranded by ‘meet and greet’ firm Cars left abandoned in ‘barns, farms and lay-bys’
BAFFLED holidaymakers were stranded when a “meet and greet” company failed to bring their cars back to the airport.
The car was filthy, the was battery flat. What an ordeal KAREN MIDDLEMORE STRANDED MUM-OF-TWO
The keys were recovered by angry passengers from prefabricated offices, it is claimed.
And the cars themselves were found abandoned in country roads, lay-bys, outside a pub and on a farm.
Families arriving home to Bristol airport were stuck when Absolutely Secure Airport Parking failed to answer phone calls on Friday.
It was more than 24 hours before Karen Middlemore, who had been away with her sons, aged two and five, found their car on farmland.
The 48-year-old, from Cornwall, fumed: “There were no locked gates or CCTV cameras.
“It was filthy. They had left an interior light on so our battery was flat. It was a terrible ordeal.”
Chris Sparkes, 56, returned from Cape Verde with daughters, 19 and 26, and his wife, to eventually find their car two days later in a barn covered in hay and dust.
The finance director had to pay £40 for a cab home to Bristol.
When he went to the firm’s offices on Sunday, he found people desperately looking for keys. He said: “It was a shambles. It wasn’t secure at all.
“We spent Saturday not knowing where the car was.” Russ Lewington, 59, returned from skiing in France with wife Amanda, 43, and children George, nine, and India, five. They made it home to Box in Wiltshire but got their car, which was parked at a farm, the next day after picking up the keys from “a caravan”.
Passengers, who had paid around £55 for parking, were told cars were not at the airport as staff were on strike.
The firm’s phone message says: “Sorry, but the mobile you’re calling is not available.” Bristol airport said police are aware of the situation.