A mum was left bewildered when a mystery holidaymaker randomly parked their car on her driveway for nearly a week - but she has finally figured out why.
Debbie Flynn, who neighbours Birmingham International Airport, was enraged to discover a silver Vauxhall Mokka left next to her garage on Tuesday April 12. The motorist had gone as far as to unlock the gates to her drive of her home in Sheldon, east Birmingham, to park on the property.
Now she has solved the mystery, after her landlord left her a note. Initially, Debbie had suspected fraudsters had sold her drive as a cheap parking spot for the airport after police confirmed the car was not stolen and her landlord said he knew nothing about it.
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But the mum-of-two has now received an email from her landlord, who had forgotten he'd registered for a parking app years ago. Debbie said: "One of the first things I did when I found the car was to ask the landlord if he knew anything about it and he said he didn't.
"The landlord has since been in touch and said that years ago he opened a parking app for his drive. He has just checked his emails and a female driver has emailed him saying she has parked on his drive, gone on holiday and will be back next week. I can’t believe it!"
Debbie added: "My first thought when it happened was that it was my landlord. I did send him a text that wasn’t very polite but when the landlord made contact, he reassured me it wasn’t his car."
Debbie and her partner Leon had originally put chains around the car's wheels so the returning motorist would have to give an explanation for parking there. But that has all changed now they have got the bottom of the landlord's lapse in memory, reports Birmingham Live.
When the car first appeared, Debbie informed the police but officers said they were powerless to move the Vauxhall Mokka from the grass verge of their drive. The matter was regarded as "civil and not criminal".
If Debbie had affected the car while trying to move it, she would be liable for an offence of criminal damage under the current law. Debbie had described her confusion over the car when it first appeared saying it was like it "had just dropped out of the sky" and was "a complete mystery".
"The cheeky g*ts opened my gate and parked it and shut the gates after leaving it on the grass. The police officer who came to see us said he had never seen anything like this in all his years," added Debbie.
Parking apps, where residents rent spaces on their property, have become a popular way to earn extra money especially for those living near airports, train stations and city centre sites. But they have also become targeted by fraudsters who get money off unsuspecting motorists to park at land they don't own.
