Asheville, North Carolina isn't known as a 'dangerous' city. In the 2010 crime report, North Carolina's (as a whole) crime rate decreased by 5% (source ncdoj.gov). But recently, travelers through the Asheville Regional Airport have been reporting damage to their cars while they have been left in the lots. Social media website, Reddit, has just voiced complaints about burglary as one unlucky traveler reported losses of $270. The full thread on Reddit can be found here. The user, selandris, posted that the damage to the car's door handle (in an attempt to break in) cost $270 to repair. Luckily, the damage was covered by the person's insurance, but there are many insurance plans that wouldn't cover this type of damage. The car had been parked in the Long Term parking lot. Asheville Airport offers two types of parking, Short Term and Long Term. The Short Term's daily maximum is $12.00, soon to be $12.50 in 2012, and the long term has a daily maximum of $7.00. The airport's parking layout is mapped out below:

Of course, this calls into question the security measures that are being taken outside of the airport's doors. While 9/11 may have tripled airport security, there has been no apparent reason to triple parking security.

However, the Asheville Airport claims to take security measures. One such measure is the counting and recording of all vehicles from midnight to 4:00 AM. We've just messaged officials to get more information about the extend of video coverage of parking lots as well as any other security precautions we might have not been able to find.

This isn't the first break-in or vandalizing of a car in Asheville's Airport. Some citizens report "...dramatic rise in vehicle break-ins in the airport parking lot".

UPDATE:

The Asheville Airport has responded to a complaint about the parking lot security:

[We have]Lots of security -- 24-hour police coverage for all of airport property; parking staffed 24-hours as well, plus CCTV coverage.

Information on General Airport Security by guest author Justenzy. Thanks for your contribution to the Asheville Airport information and general airport security in general!

Let's get started:

Airport Security

Airport security is in place to prevent threats on the plane and in the airport itself. Security in airports since 9/11 have become a serious threat, governments have taking a very serious approach to how they protect staff and passengers.

Airport Security Precautions

Higher level security measures have now been put in place. Metal detectors are now in use to prevent the smuggling of weapons such as knifes and blades.
All baggage go through a screening to find forbidden items, Things such as drugs, weapons, explosives and some food and liquid are banned from air travel and the result will be the items being seized or further consequences.
America has now implemented an x-ray which all passengers will have to undertake before boarding the plane. Some questions have been asked whether this is an invasion of privacy, but is privacy more important than safety? It was either the x-ray or a full body search, which would require a state of undress. Other countries are now following this and it is expected that most airports worldwide will soon all have x-rays or another method of full body searching.

United States Security Precautions

In the United States, Federal Police are used to secure the airport, but in places such as Australia they use trained security, which have had no prior experience with the police force.
Sky marshals or better known as Air marshals were introduced in 1970 in the United States. Air marshals are in flight security that are aboard planes and remain undercover. They have been issued in Australia, Canada and United States. They were rare until 9/11, since than it has increased dramatically.
9/11 changed airport security as we know it. Countries like Australia, Canada, United States and UK have increased the security with more countries to follow, But is there a need for all this fuss? Maybe not, but do we really want to take a risk.

The Asheville Airport has taken on all of these security measures (obviously) and we are grateful for Justenzy to write for us.