The owner of the abandoned car carrying a cargo of rotting meat is in jail Auckland Transport say.
The car was removed by Auckland Transport this morning.
Spokesman Mark Hannan confirmed they had been told by police the owner was in jail.
The vehicle was vandalised overnight and rolled to the middle of the car park driveway.
"We will be storing it until we can find a family member, or someone we can return it to," Mr Hannon said.
The Honda Domani, which had five packets of rotting meat sitting on its back seat, is believed to have been left in a shopping centre car park in Point Chevalier for over four weeks. Parking infringement notices on the windscreen date back to May.
Yesterday, Point Chevalier resident Phil Parker said the stink coming from the vehicle was "disgusting".
"It is revolting. There are flies crawling all over the area because the meat has gone off. The gases in the meat have blown up the plastic around it and it is disgusting," he said.
"It has probably got to the point where it is a health hazard but no one seems to want to do anything about it so you have got this horrible disgusting thing sitting in a carpark."
Mr Parker said he had been in contact with a number of Government bodies about the issue but it had not been dealt with.
"No one seems to want to know about it," he said. "If it was a car that had been parked on Queen street for a month with rotting meat in it, I am sure something would have been done about it."
But unfortunately for shoppers and residents the car did not meet the legislative criteria of an abandoned vehicle, because it had plates, registration and warrant of fitness.
It's understood a NZDF aircraft and multiple helicopters are involved.