Woman alleges someone drove her car after she parked at unlicensed NYC lot

NEW YORK — A Hudson Valley woman says her car was taken on a joyride from Jamaica, Queens to New Jersey after she parked at an unlicensed long-term parking lot near John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Attorneys for the City of New York say it’s one of dozens of unlicensed lots creating a “game of whack-a-mole” for inspectors.
A New Hampton woman, who does not want to be identified, says she parked at JFK Econopark on 147th Avenue before her flight to Europe in August.
She says she returned to the lot after the trip to discover her battery was dead and receipts show she took an Uber back to Orange County and had her car towed from the lot.
Weeks later, she got a notice in the mail for a toll violation on the George Washington Bridge. The violation notice says while her flight was approaching Europe, someone was driving her car about 20 miles from the lot.
“It leaves me really unsettling that I was across the world and someone had my car with my personal stuff in it,” the woman said.
After she got the violation notice, she says she called the lot manager.
According to the woman, “[He said,] ‘I think I know who it is. I’d love to help.’ He called us back later that day and asked us a couple more questions about what had happened, and then since then, he won’t even answer the phone.”
She wants someone to explain where her car went and why.
“And I’d love to see reimbursement for everything that it cost me,” she said.
JFK Econopark typically hangs onto customers’ keys, and other people have complained online alleging scratches on their cars, unexpected fees, even theft from a glovebox.
An employee CBS News New York investigative reporter Tim McNicholas spoke to at the lot couldn’t explain any of that, and we don’t know if they had anything to do with the problems.
One worker offered a piece of cardboard with a name and number for a manager named “Markens Nicholas.”
The scribble appears to be a misspelling of the name Markens Nicolas, who state records list as the manager of an LLC which the city ticketed five times for allegedly operating a now-closed parking lot without a license between 2017 and 2021. That lot, called JFK Airlot, was located just a few miles from JFK Econopark.
McNicholas drove to Nicolas’ home to ask him about that, but couldn’t find him there, and phone calls and text messages were never returned.
An employee at JFK Econopark told McNicholas the lot has a license with the city, but back in August, the city sued a popular parking app, Way, for allegedly listing and promoting 46 unlicensed lots or garages in New York City, including JFK Econopark.
Lawyers for the city describe a “perpetual game of whack-a-mole” as inspectors try to enforce against unlicensed operators that are constantly rebranding or changing business names.
Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga says her office has also issued three violation notices for JFK Econopark.
“Why not just shut that parking lot down?” McNicholas asked.
“Sometimes that’s not a tool that is available to us depending on the category, but we’re certainly always exploring all of the things that are available for us to make sure that consumers are not taken advantage of, and one of those tools for us right now is going after apps like Way.com who are aiding these unlicensed businesses,” Mayuga said.
The city says it did shut down part of the lot after inspectors realized over the summer about half of it was operating on city-owned property.
A spokesperson for Way says the company has deactivated JFK Econopark on its platform. The company says now, customers can’t use Way to book a spot there are at any unlicensed lot in the city.
DCWP says to avoid this kind of headache, you can use their searchable online database to type in a company’s name and see if they have an active license.