[WTF?!] Man missing for 8 months found at airport parking

[Kasey Chang]

As far as everyone can tell, he had been there all of 8 months. Dead.

http://jalopnik.com/no-one-can-explain- ... 1818598046

[Daehawk]

Shows how lazy and stupid employees are .

[Sepiche]

Lenexa is a small but affluent city on the other side of the metro area from the KCI. Sounds like the Lenexa PD was doing the main investigation, asked the company that runs the parking lots around KCI to look for this car, only it was parked with it's front facing out, and in Kansas cars only have the plate on the back, not the front. The private security that patrolled never got out of their vehicles to actually scan the plate of the car in question, so no one realized it was there.

Hard to fault the Lenexa PD for trusting that airport security were doing their job correctly when they said the car wasn't there.

[Jaymann]

Did his relatives have to pay the parking tab?

[Pyperkub]

I saw 8m and thought minutes

[Trent Steel]

"This is long term parking only..."

[Alefroth]

I saw 8m and thought minutes

Ditto. They are both KaseyWTF?! worthy.

[Kasey Chang]

One of those days, one of those days.

[LawBeefaroni]

Lenexa is a small but affluent city on the other side of the metro area from the KCI. Sounds like the Lenexa PD was doing the main investigation, asked the company that runs the parking lots around KCI to look for this car, only it was parked with it's front facing out, and in Kansas cars only have the plate on the back, not the front. The private security that patrolled never got out of their vehicles to actually scan the plate of the car in question, so no one realized it was there.

Hard to fault the Lenexa PD for trusting that airport security were doing their job correctly when they said the car wasn't there.

You'd hope that upon seeing a car with no front plate, they'd have to get out and check the back. Total fail by airport "security."

[Carpet_pissr]

Did his relatives have to pay the parking tab?

$1,000 according to the comments.

Crazy. Guess they are trying to reduce the eventual lawsuit costs they will be paying to the family.

[Paingod]

You'd hope that upon seeing a car with no front plate, they'd have to get out and check the back. Total fail by airport "security."

I'd expect no less for $10/hr. Now, if you want the plates properly checked, that's worth at least $15/hr.

[Carpet_pissr]

Interesting factoid: 31 states require plates on both the front and back. The others only require one on the back.

Living in a "back end only" :p state, I never knew so many other states required plates on the front.

[LawBeefaroni]

Interesting factoid: 31 states require plates on both the front and back. The others only require one on the back.

Living in a "back end only" :p state, I never knew so many other states required plates on the front.

What still surprises me is the fact that so many cars are built for rear only. When you buy a new one in a front state they have to trot out a mechanic to install a mounting bracket.

I love seeing all the DIY mounts from people who move from rear only states.

[Carpet_pissr]

Ha! And the reverse as well. I remember when I bought a VW Passat many years ago, they handed me (or it was in the car) a bunch of hardware with this big plastic piece that matched the color of the car. I had no idea what it was until I passed the car to my wife and she wanted to put a Portuguese flag plate on front.

[Kasey Chang]

Interesting factoid: 31 states require plates on both the front and back. The others only require one on the back.

Living in a "back end only" :p state, I never knew so many other states required plates on the front.

Bonus factoid: California closed "Steve Jobs Loophole". Newly purchased vehicles will no longer be allowed to run "dealer paper plates" or no plates at all, not even the six months period.

[Blackhawk]

You'd hope that upon seeing a car with no front plate, they'd have to get out and check the back. Total fail by airport "security."

I'd expect no less for $10/hr. Now, if you want the plates properly checked, that's worth at least $15/hr.

They average more than $15 an hour, I believe.

Having experience with security management (including at places with a lot of parking), I did some checking. The lot in question (Economy Lot B) has ~5,900 parking spaces. The airport has ~25,000 parking spaces in multiple lots, some of them more distant. What probably happens in a generic missing persons case where the airport is just a guess is that they give their mobile units the license plate and ask them to keep an eye out for it. I'd also be willing to bet that, on any given day, they get half a dozen or more cars to check for (I can promise you that the LEOs are calling them in all the time.) This is almost certainly done by vehicle and not on foot (given the amount of ground they have to check in the amount of time they have.) They probably also have a required number of rounds they are required to make in a certain amount of time - this is due to liability issues.

That means that they're driving through a lot, looking at cars on both sides as they go, and they can't go too slow, either. In the time it takes to key your radio or check the gas gauge, you've passed a car or two. While they're doing that, they also have to be actively watching for all of the other things that they are there to watch for, answer questions, and respond to situations. When they respond to situations, they leave the lot and don't necessarily restart at the same exact spot they left off from. Then there are shift changes. Then there is that fact that by the time they come around a second time, many of the cars will have changed (KCI serves about 30,000 passengers per day.)

Now, to be fair, they had more than a license plate - they had a description, too, but remember that they still have to look at every vehicle for a half dozen things, the road itself, the pedestrians, the walks, the open spaces, and a bunch other things. 25,000 cars without missing a bunch just isn't possible. And they didn't have eight months to spot the plate. They had a few shifts, after which they had new plates to watch for and any not found were probably logged and put aside. You just can't check 25,000 cars for 30 plate numbers. It's impossible.

And remember, this was a *guess* that a missing person might be here. If they had certainty that this person was here they could probably assign an officer or two to just look for that one car, but they can't do that for every single plate number they get called in.

[Punisher]

does this mean they need a new SOP for DOAs from the FAA?

[Isgrimnur]

Someone had alphabet soup for lunch.

[Paingod]

You just can't check 25,000 cars for 30 plate numbers. It's impossible.

Which is where a security guard becomes complacent and stops trying. I've always eventually stopped when presented with an unending and impossible task. It probably takes about a week for that reality to settle in.

[LawBeefaroni]

You just can't check 25,000 cars for 30 plate numbers. It's impossible.

Which is where a security guard becomes complacent and stops trying. I've always eventually stopped when presented with an unending and impossible task. It probably takes about a week for that reality to settle in.

Over the course of 8 months they should notice when a car hasn't moved. Hell, after a month it should be investigated. It was in a 6,000 spot lot. Equivalent to a 6 floor structure with 100 spots a floor. It's not that big. The car should have been noticed as abandoned and investigated at the very least regardless of the police request and plate checks.

I notice at work when a car has been there for a week and I just park in the garage. I don't do security there. Our security does foot patrol several times a day in the structure. Surely an airport does the same. Or should.


As an aside, I've noticed a lot of security guards in a lot of places are glued to their phones. Going to guess that overall security rigor has taken a huge hit with the rise of smart phones.

[Paingod]

As an aside, I've noticed a lot of security guards in a lot of places are glued to their phones. Going to guess that overall security rigor has taken a huge hit with the rise of smart phones.

I'm sure the rules are the same as always - you're not allowed to do anything except your patrols and read policy manuals. You weren't allowed to read books (which everyone did) or homework (which every student did) or play solitaire on the PC (which everyone did) or play card games (which we did) or any of the other dumb things we did while on duty to pass the time and boredom.

[Isgrimnur]

It was in a 6,000 spot lot. Equivalent to a 6 floor structure with 100 spots a floor.

I think your math is off a bit.

[LawBeefaroni]

It was in a 6,000 spot lot. Equivalent to a 6 floor structure with 100 spots a floor.

I think your math is off a bit.

Or my thumbs. 1000 per floor.

[Punisher]

You just can't check 25,000 cars for 30 plate numbers. It's impossible.

Which is where a security guard becomes complacent and stops trying. I've always eventually stopped when presented with an unending and impossible task. It probably takes about a week for that reality to settle in.

Over the course of 8 months they should notice when a car hasn't moved. Hell, after a month it should be investigated. It was in a 6,000 spot lot. Equivalent to a 6 floor structure with 100 spots a floor. It's not that big. The car should have been noticed as abandoned and investigated at the very least regardless of the police request and plate checks.

I notice at work when a car has been there for a week and I just park in the garage. I don't do security there. Our security does foot patrol several times a day in the structure. Surely an airport does the same. Or should.


As an aside, I've noticed a lot of security guards in a lot of places are glued to their phones. Going to guess that overall security rigor has taken a huge hit with the rise of smart phones.

6000 cars is a LOT to memorize.. even half at 3000 is too much and yes, for what you are saying, you'd have to memorize every car in every position.. is that the same white truck in the same spot or a different white truck in a different spot..
Typically in lots these size they are in a vehicle driving around. they are there primarily as a deterrent which means they have to keep moving. they are looking for people breaking into parked cars, not parked cars themselves. it is not a realistic expectation for them to remember a specific car in a specific spot regardless of the time passed.

[Kraken]

You just can't check 25,000 cars for 30 plate numbers. It's impossible.

Which is where a security guard becomes complacent and stops trying. I've always eventually stopped when presented with an unending and impossible task. It probably takes about a week for that reality to settle in.

Over the course of 8 months they should notice when a car hasn't moved. Hell, after a month it should be investigated. It was in a 6,000 spot lot. Equivalent to a 6 floor structure with 100 spots a floor. It's not that big. The car should have been noticed as abandoned and investigated at the very least regardless of the police request and plate checks.

I notice at work when a car has been there for a week and I just park in the garage. I don't do security there. Our security does foot patrol several times a day in the structure. Surely an airport does the same. Or should.

That struck me as odd, too. We occasionally visit a museum whose garage sells long-term parking. You can easily spot the long-term vehicles by their thick layer of dust.

Do we know that this fellow's truck was in a covered garage? If it was outdoor parking, I can understand overlooking it.

[Kasey Chang]

That's why license plate readers are being sold to law enforcement... Cameras and GPS can record if a vehicle had been there for more than X days.

https://www.elsag.com/alpr-products/mobile-alpr

In the one-plate states, a sticker would be mandatory to mark the vehicle as "potentially abandoned". And if they had approached the vehicle, they should have spotted the body.

[LawBeefaroni]

You just can't check 25,000 cars for 30 plate numbers. It's impossible.

Which is where a security guard becomes complacent and stops trying. I've always eventually stopped when presented with an unending and impossible task. It probably takes about a week for that reality to settle in.

Over the course of 8 months they should notice when a car hasn't moved. Hell, after a month it should be investigated. It was in a 6,000 spot lot. Equivalent to a 6 floor structure with 100 spots a floor. It's not that big. The car should have been noticed as abandoned and investigated at the very least regardless of the police request and plate checks.

I notice at work when a car has been there for a week and I just park in the garage. I don't do security there. Our security does foot patrol several times a day in the structure. Surely an airport does the same. Or should.


As an aside, I've noticed a lot of security guards in a lot of places are glued to their phones. Going to guess that overall security rigor has taken a huge hit with the rise of smart phones.

6000 cars is a LOT to memorize.. even half at 3000 is too much and yes, for what you are saying, you'd have to memorize every car in every position.. is that the same white truck in the same spot or a different white truck in a different spot..
Typically in lots these size they are in a vehicle driving around. they are there primarily as a deterrent which means they have to keep moving. they are looking for people breaking into parked cars, not parked cars themselves. it is not a realistic expectation for them to remember a specific car in a specific spot regardless of the time passed.

You don't memorize every car. You notice cars covered in dust. Cars with dirty windshields. And you notice whenever an area is almost empty and the same car is always in the same spot. The latter might not happen much at an airport lot but over a month or so a car that hasn't moved is going to stand out.

[Blackhawk]

I'm sure the rules are the same as always - you're not allowed to do anything except your patrols and read policy manuals. You weren't allowed to read books (which everyone did) or homework (which every student did) or play solitaire on the PC (which everyone did) or play card games (which we did) or any of the other dumb things we did while on duty to pass the time and boredom.

Depends on where you worked. Higher end security jobs would have your ass in a sling if you tried any of that. When I worked at Pinkerton for six months? Sure. When I worked in the casinos, where you got three months of one-on-one training before you were ever allowed to set foot on the floor alone? Not a chance. People absolutely did try it. Sometimes they got a warning. Sometimes they didn't.

[Blackhawk]

As to memorizing cars (which you did do), I'll add that most good security departments do serious cross training. In a department with 30 officers per shift, you'd only see the same areas once every two weeks, and that was usually in four-hour shifts. You don't put one person on one post for eight hours if you expect them to stay alert.

And yes, buildup of dirt can be a tell-tale, and probably should have been (and from experience, I'd think that the buildup on the inside of the windows would have been the quicker giveaway, but that still wouldn't have happened for months. Then again, it depends a lot on the vehicle color and the environment. Are we talking a black car parked under a tree, or a white car parked near heavy traffic? You'd be able to notice in a month. A dark blue car parked in an area with lots of dust and occasional rain showers to spot it up? Month. A gray car parked in a low-traffic area with periodic thunderstorms to reset the progress? That might take a while.

[Paingod]

I guess I was among the lower class of security, then. Stuck in a booth for 8 hours from 11:00pm to 7:00am. Nothing but you and the spiders on the walls. If you didn't bring a book, you went insane.

[Isgrimnur]

Blackhawk, I hope to never need your services, but if I find myself on the wrong side of the law, you might be getting a phone call.

[Blackhawk]

I guess I was among the lower class of security, then. Stuck in a booth for 8 hours from 11:00pm to 7:00am. Nothing but you and the spiders on the walls. If you didn't bring a book, you went insane.

That was my first security job, too. Training was a two-hour session of VHS tapes, followed by instructions on-site on how to fill out logs. That was about it. Mine was a the Columbia House customer service facility during the overnight hours.

To give you an idea of the quality of people working there, we used to get bomb threats. Specifically, we'd get warnings of mail bombs. Our Sergeant felt it was her duty to prevent it. I offered to teach her how to recognize a potential bomb, but no, she'd take care of it. She did, too. She checked all of the mail for bombs by opening it.



For those unaware, most package bombs are designed to be detonated by someone opening them. It's like testing if the dynamite is real by lighting the fuse and putting it up to your ear.

I was very, very happy when I left that place.

[Jeff V]

I guess I was among the lower class of security, then. Stuck in a booth for 8 hours from 11:00pm to 7:00am. Nothing but you and the spiders on the walls. If you didn't bring a book, you went insane.

That was my first security job, too. Training was a two-hour session of VHS tapes, followed by instructions on-site on how to fill out logs. That was about it. Mine was a the Columbia House customer service facility during the overnight hours.

To give you an idea of the quality of people working there, we used to get bomb threats. Specifically, we'd get warnings of mail bombs. Our Sergeant felt it was her duty to prevent it. I offered to teach her how to recognize a potential bomb, but no, she'd take care of it. She did, too. She checked all of the mail for bombs by opening it.



For those unaware, most package bombs are designed to be detonated by someone opening them. It's like testing if the dynamite is real by lighting the fuse and putting it up to your ear.

I was very, very happy when I left that place.

That's the funniest thing I read today!

[Punisher]

That's why license plate readers are being sold to law enforcement... Cameras and GPS can record if a vehicle had been there for more than X days.

https://www.elsag.com/alpr-products/mobile-alpr

In the one-plate states, a sticker would be mandatory to mark the vehicle as "potentially abandoned". And if they had approached the vehicle, they should have spotted the body.

in a 1 plate state, I can see 2 problems with stickers.
1) Who knows how many cars are backed into spots. I know I generally do..
2) I can see a lot of complaints about people putting stickers on cars. I know I wouldn't want it.. what if it doesn't come off cleanly? plus, this is long term parking.. it's MEANT for long term.. If I drop it off there and go on vacation, how do they decide if it's abandoned or not?

[Punisher]

You just can't check 25,000 cars for 30 plate numbers. It's impossible.

Which is where a security guard becomes complacent and stops trying. I've always eventually stopped when presented with an unending and impossible task. It probably takes about a week for that reality to settle in.

Over the course of 8 months they should notice when a car hasn't moved. Hell, after a month it should be investigated. It was in a 6,000 spot lot. Equivalent to a 6 floor structure with 100 spots a floor. It's not that big. The car should have been noticed as abandoned and investigated at the very least regardless of the police request and plate checks.

I notice at work when a car has been there for a week and I just park in the garage. I don't do security there. Our security does foot patrol several times a day in the structure. Surely an airport does the same. Or should.


As an aside, I've noticed a lot of security guards in a lot of places are glued to their phones. Going to guess that overall security rigor has taken a huge hit with the rise of smart phones.

6000 cars is a LOT to memorize.. even half at 3000 is too much and yes, for what you are saying, you'd have to memorize every car in every position.. is that the same white truck in the same spot or a different white truck in a different spot..
Typically in lots these size they are in a vehicle driving around. they are there primarily as a deterrent which means they have to keep moving. they are looking for people breaking into parked cars, not parked cars themselves. it is not a realistic expectation for them to remember a specific car in a specific spot regardless of the time passed.

You don't memorize every car. You notice cars covered in dust. Cars with dirty windshields. And you notice whenever an area is almost empty and the same car is always in the same spot. The latter might not happen much at an airport lot but over a month or so a car that hasn't moved is going to stand out.

i doubt it would be that obvious.. especially if it was outdoors.. i assume it rained at times..
plus look what happened...
someone parked NEXT to it and didn't notice anything except a slight smell... They didn't think anything of it until the smell was stronger the next time they parked there..


lot security just doesn't have the time to check every vehicle in detail..

[gameoverman]

I remember this being in the news. My initial thought was that my opinion hinges on what their procedure is when a car is parked but the fee isn't paid. If they had a way to know which cars are currently parked there but not paid up, that's a fail on their part.

If they collect after the fact, after the owner tries to leave, then I see nothing wrong with them not 'finding' the car. If the police say "Be on the lookout for this vehicle with this license plate" sure, I'll keep an eye out. I'm not going to examine any cars though since that's not my job if I work there.

The truth is this car would not have difficult to find for anyone making an effort to actively search for it. Even if there are thousands of cars in the lot, they aren't all going to be a match. Car or truck or SUV? Color? 2 door or 4 door? Make? You could race up and down the rows as you search since massive amounts of vehicles could be ruled out with a glance.

[Blackhawk]

The truth is this car would not have difficult to find for anyone making an effort to actively search for it. Even if there are thousands of cars in the lot, they aren't all going to be a match. Car or truck or SUV? Color? 2 door or 4 door? Make? You could race up and down the rows as you search since massive amounts of vehicles could be ruled out with a glance.

Like I said earlier, though, they are probably asked to keep an eye out for a dozen or more cars per day. Every criminal suspected to be in the area probably leads to a BOLO for their plate to local airports. You could do it, but you'd have to assign a couple of guys specifically to license plate duty all day, every day.

[gameoverman]

Well, in this case it's one stationary car. The car is there or it's not. Does anyone think this guy would disappear, park there, stay awhile, then leave, then come back days later? Haha no. So you'd do ONE search for this vehicle and either it's there and you find it or you forget about it. If it's not there today it sure as hell won't be there tomorrow.

You do need someone with the job of searching the parking lot. That's why I say if I was a security guard there I'd at most just keep an eye out. I would need to have some other reason to be in the area of that car to 'find' it.

[Blackhawk]

Well, in this case it's one stationary car. The car is there or it's not. Does anyone think this guy would disappear, park there, stay awhile, then leave, then come back days later? Haha no. So you'd do ONE search for this vehicle and either it's there and you find it or you forget about it. If it's not there today it sure as hell won't be there tomorrow.

You do need someone with the job of searching the parking lot. That's why I say if I was a security guard there I'd at most just keep an eye out. I would need to have some other reason to be in the area of that car to 'find' it.

Looking for one car, assuming you aren't doing any other duties.

If you could properly check one spot every three seconds, it would take you about 20 hours to check the entire airport for one car. Figure a full 24 hours with breaks and three people rotating shifts. Now, again, they probably get a dozen or more license plates per day. Checking each car against a list of twelve numbers would take vastly more time. Even if you could could check all twelve against a single car at one number per second and one second between cars, that's about 90 hours. Four days, and that's assuming they all had a plate visible.

By the time you finish Monday's 12, you've got 36 more that stacked up during that time.

Again, checking every car manually for every possible vehicle of interest is a genuinely impossible task. It just can't be done by anything short of a dedicated License Search Department. I could see dedicating a small team to it for a day if you *knew* that a suicidal man *was* at the airport, but they didn't have that. They just had a family member with no knowledge (that I saw) of his intent guessing that the airport was one of the many places he could have gone.

[coopasonic]

I'd hope the police have available the same technology as the repo companies. Humans checking license plates is seriously old school. Search up LPR cameras. It would be trivial to have a parking lot keep a database of the license plates that come and go if they cared. Failing that, a car can drive through the lot and catalog all of the visible plates pretty quickly. They'd still have to manually check vehicles without visible plates.

I don't know why I am mentioning this. I just found the technology interesting when I heard about it years ago.