Missing Car Keys At Miami Parking Lot Blamed On Sabotage

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – It's still unclear who is to blame for the loss of dozens of car keys at a Miami parking lot. When the owners of those cars returned to PortMiami on Monday, they probably wished they had stayed at sea after learning they couldn't get into their parked cars because the keys were missing.

"It's exhausting to get off of a cruise have a wonderful weekend and to come back and deal with the headache of an unorganized irresponsible ridiculous company," said passenger Maria Perez.

It's unclear exactly who is to blame for the disappearance of the keys at Parking Lot 58, located at NW 8th Street and 1st Court. However, the manager of the company that runs the lot, Tampa-based Premier Parking Ventures, told CBS4's Natalia Zea Tuesday morning that he thinks it was sabotage and believes either a disgruntled employee or someone from a competitor's lot stole the keys.

He said security chased a competitor's employee off the lot Saturday night.

"We've hired investigators to find out the situation about what happened. We're not sure if it was one of our competitors who took the keys but some keys went missing from customers and that's why we hired our own investigators to figure out what happened in this situation," explained Nick Letizia from Premier Parking Ventures.

The competitor denied taking part in any theft.

"He's crazy, He's crazy. The manager is crazy. Tell the manager, the owner, come over here and face to face with the customer," said Joe Castillo, manager of Parking Lot 57.

While it's still not known who is responsible, car owners are still trying to deal with recovering their vehicles without the keys.

Some paid for locksmiths to have new keys made to get their cars, others had cars towed and some even drove rental cars to their home cities, having to abandon their vehicles for now.

Premier Parking Ventures say there are still 17 car owners on cruise ships right now whose keys are still missing. But they say they will have new keys made for them by Wednesday. As for all the other drivers who still have to retrieve their  vehicles, the company has promised to pay them back for all of their expenses including rental cars.