Cars found in car park – after 15 years….

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/cars-found-trapped-in-scotland-s-robot-car-park-15-years-on-1-4668656/amp

If they had just rocked it gently they’d have got it back.

Or buy the one behind it and hope they both come out.

Look at the cars though… They shit when they went in 😆

They aren’t anybodys cars, they were bought from a scrappys to test the operation of the system before it went into service.
The autopark was a newish untested system at the time and the quality of its operating software was questionable hence the need for the cars to test it.
The cars weren’t trapped either, the system worked in manual mode, they could have been removed using the lifts and trolleys.

My former boss in London (late 1990s, story was some years before) once reported his car stolen. Arriving late at work, he recounted the tale of leaving the house that morning, only to find no sign of the car where he’d left it the night before on arriving home from a social function. Some months later, having been paid out by the insurance company and having purchased a replacement car, he was unable to find a spot close to his fashionable London home, so had to spread his wings further afield and try increasingly distant neighbouring streets in search of a free parking spot. He eventually found one – right behind the “stolen” car, still in the same space he’d parked it in (possibly in a somewhat “tired and emotional” state) some months before…

I forget where I park my car once a week!
There was one of those “robot” car parks round the corner from Petty France in London in the 90’s. It was ace.

I once spent about an hour looking for my car in Southampton. The shopping mall there has like a 2 block multi-storey. I didn’t know this. And went up and down the wrong multi-storey tower like an utter moron.
Eventually I retraced my steps and found a bridge across to the mall that I had to cross.
They should somehow test these designs on idiots like me before building them.
I stick to Internet shopping these days.

They aren’t anybodys cars, they were bought from a scrappys to test the operation of the system before it went into service.

Why were they still in there? Were they not interested in testing whether the system was able to give customers their cars back afterwards?

I parked my car at Manchester airport recently, stupid early o’clock for a seven am flight. Coming back three days later,I knew it was in the yellow section of T1-3 long stay, but thought it was near a particular bus stop. Wrong. Took me half an hour walking up & down every aisle to finally find it parked right up against a fence.

Next trip out of Manchester I took photos of it & it’s surroundings

I parked my car when I lived in Bristol in a road a couple over from where I lived. Walked past where I thought I’d left it a few days later ‘I’m sure I left it there’ but just assumed it was the next road over and carried on.

Later that day call from the police at work (company car): “your vehicle was used in a ram raid, did they have your permission to drive it?”.

Top tip: your phone (probably) automatically records where you parked your car for you. On iOS you can see this on the “Maps Destinations” widget on the lock screen.

(My car isn’t quite 5yds away, but I’m indoors so GPS is approximate)

Yup smartphones can do that, my car can also report where it is through an app.

I’ve never forgotten where I’ve parked though.

That probably didn’t work 15 years ago. Nor does it help all that much if you’re parking in a multi storey, where not only does it have no idea how high up you’ve parked, the chances are it has no idea where within the car park your car is at all once it lost GPS signal.

Handy for the losing your car on the street thing though, and I have used it to help find my car in an open air car park.

That probably didn’t work 15 years ago.

It’s a fake story.

Never mind forgetting where you parked it, How about forgetting you even owned the car in the first place?

Several evenings I have wandered around the Q Park at Brindleyplace, looking for my car.

Only to realise I came in on the train.

Is that an Austin Maestro and a Fiat Uno?
I’d have left them too 🙂

My former boss in London (late 1990s, story was some years before) once reported his car stolen. Arriving late at work, he recounted the tale of leaving the house that morning, only to find no sign of the car where he’d left it the night before on arriving home from a social function. Some months later, having been paid out by the insurance company and having purchased a replacement car, he was unable to find a spot close to his fashionable London home, so had to spread his wings further afield and try increasingly distant neighbouring streets in search of a free parking spot. He eventually found one – right behind the “stolen” car, still in the same space he’d parked it in (possibly in a somewhat “tired and emotional” state) some months before…

A similar tale I heard involved a little old lady. Some months after her car was stolen she went to her local garage in her new car to get it serviced and they said ‘here’s your old car’ (she’d taken it for a repair and forgotten about it). Why they never called her I don’t know – it’s probably not even a true story 🙂

Glastonbury, decades ago. After dark.

a ‘time capsule’ containing vehicles which look to be models from the late nineties.

Isn’t that such an incredible find, cars from the late 90’s, it’s blowing my mind.

development by Glasgow-based BAM properties on behalf of Hermes Real Estate got underway last year.

mmm lost cars and Hermes.

Why they never called her I don’t know – it’s probably not even a true story

Probably just stuck it in in a drawer with all the half-inched headset parts.

Last summer GtiJunior and I parked in a street near Lancaster station, rushed to catch the train to Barrow and cycled back with the prevailing wind. Arriving back in Lancaster we did an out-and-back to Glasson Dock to up the mileage, hoping to clock GtiJ’s first 100, but ran out of daylight so decided to bin it.

Then we realised we couldn’t remember where we had parked the car. We ended up retracing our steps from the station in increasing darkness without lights, knackered and hungry. Found the street in the end but it was the only bad moment in a great day out for the lad!

Used to travel to the US frequently on business. Arrived in LAX, picked up a rental and decided to drop-by a local mall having checked in at hotel – it was later afternoon, few cars around and still light. The Mall was basically a huge square, with 4 identical car parks, north, south, east and west – forgot which lot I was in. When I went outside a few hours later, it was dark, the car park was full and could only remember it was blue…..

I have wasted hours of my life looking for my car on the hill by london road station in Brighton.

When i lived there I would leave it for a week or more without using it. When i was visiting I’d be in a rush to get parked, to a mates and go out for a weekend on the town. Then Sunday I’d be tired and have no memory of friday. I’d then be traipsing up and down that hill looking for the car!

My dad parked is car in the east end of glasgow on a way to a meeting (quicker to patk up and leg it than find a space)

Upon return he couldn’t find the car. Not “not where he left it” more no idea where he left it.

So he hailed a cab and asked him to get on the motorway as he knew exactly where it was turn by turn.

😆

I work directly beside that car park that’s being eaten alive, it’s a mental looking thing and the cars are directly below my office – weird.

I (twice, once is a mistake twice is dumb) flew back into Wgtn airport and cabbed home, got up in the am and discovered no car in the garage…as I’d driven to the airport in the AM. Twice.

Why were they still in there? Were they not interested in testing whether the system was able to give customers their cars back afterwards?

There was no fuel or oil in them and they were non runners, which was fine bringing them in as both the access ramps were down ramps but I suppose no one was keen in pushing them back up the hill.
Technically they were still testing the system when the place was open. Theres a reason why there are lots of dents and scrapes on those cars

Not lost as such but i’d parked up at the supermarket to get some stuff. strolling back to the car i spotted a shifty looking dude sitting in the driver’s seat, rummaging with the stereo! I grabbed a bottle of Pinot Grigio from my bag and started to hoof it across the carpark…

I was about 10m away when I spotted the baby in the back and my identical car parked beside his.

I parked my new (to me), ancient Granada Cosworth outside a Co-op, came out with my groceries, hopped back into the car and spent a fair while wondering why something looked a bit ‘off’. Then a very large, cross pizza delivery guy was hammering at the window wondering why I was in his car… In my defence, it was dark, the car was large and blue, just like mine, right down to the creaky leather seats.

Slightly OT, but not so much losing your car when parking, but unable to retrieve your car after you parked it – in 1975 the Datsun dealer in central Nicosia took a delivery of new cars. The following day the Turks parachuted in and the cars have remained ‘trapped’ ever since in the basement car park – they now reside within the green zone, patrolled by the UN as a condition of the cease fire. Cars have been stripped of parts, but there’s still a number of near immaculate bodyshells – the Celica was very nice

My dad drove off in someone else’s Granada once.

Given he’s 6’7″ and had had to make a lot of adjustments to the seat to even get in you’d think he’d have twigged. In his defence he thought the electric memory on the seats were playing up.

He couldn;t even put their car back in the same space so it ended up about 50 yards from where they left it. God knows what they thought.

You sometimes see bikes that have been forgotten and abandoned, I wonder how many cars get abandoned when their owners die, get ill, go abroad or just forget where they left them?

Good timing, I did this this evening: spent 5 minutes looking for my red car in the work car park before remembering i used my wife’s grey car this morning 😳

A group of us were cycling in Provence and decided to recce the course for the Nice triathlon we were doing later that year. A 5 am start, a 2 hour drive, a quick park and off we went with nothing but a positive attitude and a 1:200000 map of the south eastern corner of France with the course drawn in red pen. 120km later, dehydrated and in a severe bonk we arrived back at the car to find we were in the wrong valley. And we had no idea of where the right valley was.

It was a long evening rescued only by a large pizza from the greatest of Euro inventions, a van with a proper wood fire inside.