VW Racks Up $208,000 Parking Bill After Year-Long Airport Stay

Parking at the airport is never a walk in the park, especially when you’re not sure how long you’ll be gone. However, one thing is certain: short-term parking spots aren’t meant for long-term use. Yet, that’s exactly what seems to have happened with one Volkswagen Golf, which has been hanging out for over 365 days outside the main entrance of Berlin Airport. And nobody knows why or who the owner is.

The case remains unsolved, with no one able to track down the owner of the car. The Golf in question is a diesel-powered fifth-gen model with Hanover license plates, aftermarket wheels, and even a winch. Inside, it’s as if someone left in a hurry, with remnants of lunch scattered around, including scraps of food packaging, a half-empty water bottle, and, just to add a touch of oddness, a small piece of barricade tape wrapped around the rear wiper.

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This parking spot is free for the first 10 minutes, but every additional hour costs €23 ($24), adding up to a daily fee of €552 ($573). Over the course of 365 days, that totals an absolutely bonkers parking fee of over €200,000 ($207,700). To put that in perspective, this bank-crushing amount is more than 66 times the estimated value of the Golf on the used car market.

Authorities Are Stumped

While the situation has caught the attention of local media, authorities are still baffled. According to Berliner Zeitung, APCOA Deutschland GmbH, the company managing the lot, is aware of the situation and has already contacted the authorities. However, no one has been able to track down the owner

200.000 Euro Parkgebühr: Welches Geheimnis birgt dieses herrenlose Auto am Berliner Flughafen?https://t.co/0KlY1akq9D

— Berliner Zeitung (@berlinerzeitung) January 24, 2025

VW Golf owner faces £170,000 parking ticket after leaving car parked outside airport for a year https://t.co/3rfOTrgb6A pic.twitter.com/7UNbeE5FGn

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The local police, meanwhile, are uninterested, as the car isn’t on a public road and therefore doesn’t technically fall under their jurisdiction, according to German newspaper Bild.

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Interestingly, the car’s VIN number, which is plainly visible on the windshield, could provide a clue to the owner’s identity. But whether anyone’s even bothered to check it remains a mystery. At this point, it feels like the car is one step away from becoming an unsolved case in the X-Files.

Theories and Speculation

So why would someone leave a perfectly fine car in an airport parking lot for over a year? One possible explanation is that the Volkswagen might have been stolen and used as a getaway vehicle. Perhaps the person who abandoned it swapped the license plates with another car, adding an extra layer of complexity to the case. Of course, all of this is pure speculation, as the available information is extremely limited.

There are plenty of cases of vehicles being left behind in airport parking lots, but most of them are abandoned in long-term lots and eventually auctioned off. As for this particular Golf, APCOA stated that whether they can collect the astronomical parking fees “depends on whether the debtor can be identified and has the necessary financial means.”

A Safety Concern?

It’s also strange that no one’s raised a red flag about the Golf sitting there for over a year. Parking in such a high-traffic, high-visibility spot (right outside the airport entrance) seems like a glaring safety hazard, even if it doesn’t technically qualify as an “abandoned” vehicle. In any other situation, a car this conspicuous would likely be towed, ticketed, or at the very least flagged by someone in charge.

The Berlin Airport as seen in Google Maps from 2022

The fifth-generation VW Golf