PHOENIX - A man who abandoned a rental car at Sky Harbor's busiest terminal causing flight cancellations and an evacuation for hours Sunday will only be subjected to a $52 fine, Phoenix police say.
Parts of Terminal 4 at the Phoenix airport were closed and flights were canceled Sunday as police investigated the unattended vehicle, airport officials say. Bomb-sniffing K-9s along with a Phoenix Police Department Bomb Squad were also called to the scene to determine the car was not a threat to the community.
Police are not releasing the man's name but identified him as 29-year-old man who was dropping off his 19-year-old girlfriend at the airport. They say he left the car in the Terminal 4 curbside drop-off area around 6:30 a.m. Authorities were finally able to clear the car from the scene sometime before noon.
Oddly enough, Richard Polanco Jr. says unattended cars are not a rare occurrence at Sky harbor, and his family business, Alliance Towing responds to calls daily. "When there is a car that's left there, they call us out and say 'hey this car has been here too long, get it out of here,' but this time apparently something was suspicious," Polanco Jr. said. He also had the pleasure of driving this mystery man to the tow yard after his rental car was cleared.
"He was nervous, scared, embarrassed, you name it," Polanco Jr. said. The two did have a brief conversation in which Polanco says the man revealed his reasoning for leaving the car. "He basically said when he got there his girlfriend needed help checking in so he didn't think about it. I'll just help her it's so early, there's hardly anybody here," Polanco Jr. said.
PHOTOS: Rental car at Sky Harbor after police cleared it
The man received a Notice of Violation for violating Phoenix City Code 36-134.4, “Prohibited Parking per Sign or Red Curb,” from an Airport Operations Assistant, police said Monday. It will cost him a $52 fine. In addition, the man will have to pay a $75 towing fee.
No other charges are being sought at this time, police said.
This got us thinking about how the ridiculousness of a $52 fine after all the chaos this man caused at the airport. Hundreds of people missed their flights and likely thousands were delayed or impacted by the four hour shut down of an entire terminal. Yet, the man behind it all will pay less than the fine for illegally turning right on red ($186) or driving in the HOV lane with less than two people ($408). Shutting down a terminal at the airport comes with far less financial punishment than driving without registration ($591) or driving without a back license plate ($155). Of course this man wasn't cited for shutting down an airport terminal, he was cited for "Prohibited parking per Sign or red Curb," according to police.
Just some food for thought...