Photo: ABC News: Eugene Boisvert
Few things should still surprise us in 2020, but here is one with some potential in this sense: a possible fortune-teller abandoned a BMW 5-Series E60 at the Adelaide Airport in Australia because of its vanity plate.
A gray BMW 5-Series E60 has been parked outside the airport terminal, in one of the spots closest to the building, for several months now, baffling staff as to why the owner or close family never came to pick it up. A car abandoned or forgotten at an airport is not a big deal, if you consider the fact that it could be a rental, the size of the airport and the fact that international travel has seen far better days, to put a positive spin on what is happening right now in the world.
What’s most baffling about this car is the vanity plates on it, which read COVID19. According to Steven Spry, who works at the airport and approached ABC.net with the story, the car has been there since “February or even earlier.”
He can’t pinpoint the exact date, but he knows for a fact it was there in March, when the airport went offline for 4 weeks, and his colleagues have confirmed seeing it as early as February. In April, the car’s cover was blown away by strong wind, he says.
At first, they thought the BMW belonged to airport staff, but they’re not allowed to park for longer than 48 hours. Then, they assumed it belonged to a pilot who had become stranded in another country, but they couldn’t understand why family didn’t show up to claim it.
The strangest thing of it all, though, is this: in Australia, vanity plates are registered for periods of 12, 24 and 36 months, and this one expires in September 2020. This means that, at the latest, it was registered in September 2019, months before the outbreak in China and before the spread to other countries.
Extrapolating, this could mean one thing: some fortune-teller predicted the health crisis and made sure we knew about it by getting the name stamped on a vanity plate, and then dumping the car at the airport. Or it’s all just a strange coincidence, but the other hypothesis is more fun. We can all use more of that these days.
Moreover, airport authorities say they’ve made contact with the owner “who is interstate.”
What’s most baffling about this car is the vanity plates on it, which read COVID19. According to Steven Spry, who works at the airport and approached ABC.net with the story, the car has been there since “February or even earlier.”
He can’t pinpoint the exact date, but he knows for a fact it was there in March, when the airport went offline for 4 weeks, and his colleagues have confirmed seeing it as early as February. In April, the car’s cover was blown away by strong wind, he says.
At first, they thought the BMW belonged to airport staff, but they’re not allowed to park for longer than 48 hours. Then, they assumed it belonged to a pilot who had become stranded in another country, but they couldn’t understand why family didn’t show up to claim it.
The strangest thing of it all, though, is this: in Australia, vanity plates are registered for periods of 12, 24 and 36 months, and this one expires in September 2020. This means that, at the latest, it was registered in September 2019, months before the outbreak in China and before the spread to other countries.
Extrapolating, this could mean one thing: some fortune-teller predicted the health crisis and made sure we knew about it by getting the name stamped on a vanity plate, and then dumping the car at the airport. Or it’s all just a strange coincidence, but the other hypothesis is more fun. We can all use more of that these days.
*Update
As it turns out, the fortune-teller theory doesn’t really hold water (like it could ever!). A new report by ABC.net states the car was spotted being driven on a road near the airport in March and then later photographed stationary, in the parking lot. Which means it couldn’t have been there as early as February, as initially assumed.Moreover, airport authorities say they’ve made contact with the owner “who is interstate.”
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