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14 July, 2020

Car with ‘COVID19’ number plate parked at Adelaide Airport leaves staff baffled

A car with the number plate ‘COVID19’ has been parked at Adelaide Airport for months, according to puzzled staff who say they don’t know who owns it.

Photos of the grey BMW sedan were sent to ABC Radio Adelaide, which first reported on the story, by airport worker Steven Spry, who told the outlet that the vehicle had been left in the airport’s staff car park since before Australia’s coronavirus lockdowns began.

The novel coronavirus was officially dubbed COVID-19 on 11 February. Since the World Health Organisation deemed the global outbreaks of the disease a pandemic in March, international travel has been widely restricted across the world.

Spry told ABC News that as far as colleagues could recall, the car had been there since “February or even earlier”.

The car had a cover over it that was blown off by windy weather in April, Spry told ABC News, creating more intrigue about the car – particularly its number plate.

Image: supplied

Image source: supplied

Spry said staff had speculated about why such an expensive car would be left at the airport, parked in one of the spaces closest to the terminal.

“We seem to think it might be a long-haul pilot who has gone overseas and can’t get back,” he said.

“It’s a high-end vehicle so it’s going to have to be someone on a fair dollar to get a vehicle like that, but you’d think a family member would have gone to get it.”

Speaking to Travel Weekly, Spry said the car still remains at Adelaide Airport, despite months left unattended. Staff, he said, are only meant to leave their vehicles in the car park for up to 48 hours.

It remains a mystery as to when the owner of the car would have had the licence plate approved by South Australia’s Registrar of Motor Vehicles, and why.

The BMW in question is registered until late September, according to ABC News, and there are no licence plates registered as ‘COVID19’ interstate, other than a similarly plated NSW Volvo car with the registration ‘COVID’ and a Suzuki motorcycle in the Northern Territory with the same number plate.

Featured image source: supplied

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adelaide airport airport BMW car covid19 number plate Steven Spry