Boston’s Logan Airport Auctioned off 71 Abandoned Cars Yesterday – Why Were They Abandoned?

It is frightening to me to think about how much money, over my lifetime, I have spent on parking my car at airports. My home town SBN or South Bend International has steadily raised their rates year after year and I now park off-site at a hotel when flying out of the airport to save some cash (unless I am running really late that is).

Sometimes when walking to the terminal I see cars that look like they have been parked there forever. At around $10 a day that can add up if you are parking for an extended period of time. I know in big markets $10 a day would be considered cheap compared to the daily rate.

With all that in mind, yesterday I saw a CBS News post out of Boston Logan where they were set yesterday to auction off, not just a few cars, but 71 of them that had been abandoned. I could not for the life of me understand why someone would park at an airport and never ever return to pick up the car. So I decided to ask ChatGPT for an answer and here is what it said could be some of the reason:

1. Travelers who never came back. Sometimes people park at the airport intending to take a short trip — but then something happens and they never return.
Common scenarios include:
Medical emergencies or death while traveling
Arrests or deportations abroad
Permanent relocations (someone moves overseas and leaves the car behind)
Lost keys or documentation — then the owner never deals with retrieving it

2. Financial problems
Some cars are abandoned because:
Owners can’t afford the accumulating parking fees (which can reach thousands of dollars).
Vehicles are older or not worth the tow/storage costs, so the owner just leaves it.
Occasionally, bankruptcies or repossessions leave cars stranded when the owner’s financial situation collapses mid-trip.

3. Vehicles used for one-way trips
People sometimes drive to the airport intending never to drive again — for example:
Moving out of state or country and flying to the new location
Fleeing a situation or starting fresh elsewhere
Selling scams or stolen cars abandoned after use

4. Legal or logistical complications
Rental cars or company vehicles that were never properly returned or claimed after internal confusion.
Estate issues — when someone dies, heirs might not realize there’s a car sitting at an airport.
Police impoundments — sometimes cars are seized but left in airport lots pending legal clearance.

5. Airports don’t immediately clear them. Airports often let cars sit for months or even years before towing them because:
They need to follow due process to contact the owner and handle titles legally.
Storage and disposal require coordination with local authorities.
During the pandemic, many cars were left long-term and some were never reclaimed.

OK I get some of these and could see the reasoning but unless the car is stolen and someone intentionally drove their car to the airport would there not be enough documentation with the VIN number or the license plate to track down who own it and get them, one way or another, to come get their car?

Now this abandoned car at the airport goes to a whole ‘nother level when you are talking about Gulf states like Dubai. There is an interesting post (and video) of ultra expensive super cars being abandoned and left to rot and it is not just because mega rich people just don’t care about money.

This topic does hit me somewhat personally and why I wanted to post about it. A while back a dear friend of mine had to go to New York, to a very expensive hotel, and pick up his son’s car. His son, who is bipolar, had just left the car and the hotel was billing thousands of dollars for the continued parking fees. My friend negotiated a lower price with the agreement he would come and get the car within a week.

Does it surprise you as much as it did me that so many cars are left behind at airports only to be auctioned off as-is? – René