Parked car found after eleven days: 70-year-old man left it outside the city to avoid paying parking fees

The whole of Utrecht helped search for Rien Mertens’ parked Nissan. Now, after eleven days, he has finally been found. The family of the 70-year-old man is now considering installing a tracking system because the man’s short-term memory has begun to fail him.

It was a reporter from RTV Utrecht, the regional television, who saw the white Nissan Evalia while he was on his way to make a report. In recent days, everyone has been involved in the search and there has been a lot of communication about it on social media. But no tips led to the parked vehicle.

Rien Mertens had to be in Utrecht about two weeks ago and was going to park in a parking garage. But to avoid the high parking costs, he decided to park the car a little further away and take the bicycle out of the suitcase and cycle the last part. Everything went well, but when he wanted to return home, he couldn’t find his car anywhere. Maybe the police had him towed, his son thought. But the police found no police report on his name and license plate.

Maybe the police had him towed, his son thought. But the police found no police report on his name and license plate

Stolen

After a major search yielded nothing, son Evan Mertens placed a call for help on Facebook and received many tips. But after ten days the car had still not been found, so they began to fear that it had been stolen. Until a reporter remembered the report on regional television. The car was shining in the parking lot at De Uithof, near the university. He has now been picked up by the family.

Rien had parked it there himself, but couldn’t remember. And the searches organized by family and friends did not go there. “We are now going to look for the best solution to prevent it from happening again. A tracking system in the car would help a lot,” says the family.