A La Guardia Airport employee used a unique method of transportation when he took his lunch break on Saturday, driving the terminal stair car to get pizza, according to the New York Post. Or did he?
The stair cars are prohibited from being driven on New York City streets and a spokesman from Southwest said the photograph was taken out of context by the newspaper.
The driver, who, according to the Post, is a regular at the pizza place he stopped at, was seen driving the Southwest Airlines owned vehicle on 19th Avenue at Hazen Street in Queens around 12:30 p.m.
"It is not legal to drive on a public street," a DMV spokesman told the Post. The vehicle has a Port Authority license plate that is marked "A 3537," which only permits the vehicle to be driven on airport property.
"This is not acceptable behavior," Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said. "We will immediately begin to identify the offending vehicle and driver and will take appropriate action."
Southwest disagrees with the report of the vehicle being inappropriately driven. The company disputes the report and calls the story untrue.
"Nothing unusual or out of protocol on this one," Chris Mainz, a spokesman for Southwest, said.
A photograph shows a worker driving the stair car on a street in Queens, though Mainz says there is a logical, and legal, explanation for the photograph.
"He was simply taking the equipment to their office for their standard upkeep and standard maintenance," Mainz told USA Today. "So nothing out of the ordinary.
"It [the stair car] had all the proper plates and tags they need to do so," Mainz continued. "He certainly was not going to get pizza."
Even if it the Post story was a misunderstanding, it received a mention on the "Today Show" on NBC, and the pizza version is certainly much more interesting, reminiscient of the Bluth family.
The report on the story on the "Today Show."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
