Cars, trucks vandalized at Whitehorse airport parking lot

A Whitehorse man turned his car around and drove home Sunday after he noticed about 10 vehicles with smashed windows in the long-term parking lot he'd planned to use at the Whitehorse airport.

"Every row had at least one car that had been smashed, glass on the ground," said Sean Nardella, who flew south yesterday. "It looked like some of them had been sitting there for a long time, so these are people who are probably on holiday and have no idea this has even happened and they're going to be coming home to this."

Instead of using the parking lot, Nardella drove home and got a taxi.

"It's disappointing," he said of the situation. "There's no fence around the lot, there's no security presence. When I did track down a security guard and mentioned it to him he just sorta shrugged his shoulders and said basically, 'What do you want us to do? It's summer.'"

Nardella also said the guard admitted they don't patrol the lot often.  

"What exactly are we paying for?" he asked. "They've recently raised their fees and I'd like to know what their plan is for using some of that money to make the lot safer."

Government to review incident, consider security cameras

Doris Wurfbaum, speaking for the territorial government's department of highways and public works, said that there are currently no security cameras at the airport parking lot, but that it will be a consideration in future as the incident is reviewed.

"Although airport security does patrol the security access lane, their primary duties are to ensure that the security of the airport terminal building and air-side environment are safe and secure," she said. "There is signage in the parking lot that indicates you do park at your own risk because the lot is unsupervised."

Wurfbaum said that personal items were left visible in the cars that were broken into, and reminded the public that because the parking lot is not monitored, customers using it should remember to hide their personal items so as not to attract vandals.

"This incident will be reviewed," she said. "For obvious reasons, we don't speak about specific security measures that do happen at the airport.

At this time, all we can do is just reiterate that the department does not offer secured parking." 

​20 cars damaged, 1 stolen

RCMP said about 20 vehicles had their windows smashed out and had been rifled through between Sunday and today.

"It is unknown at this time, what, if anything was stolen from the vehicles, or if any vehicles were in fact stolen," police said in a news release.

On Friday, police got a report of a stolen red 1999 Toyota Tercel that could have been taken anywhere between July 20 and August 7. The licence plate has since been recovered, but not the car.

Both matters are still under investigation.