A lot of it depends on where you live.
In San Diego we have to consider how close we live to the Mex border.

Two of my coworkers (Chevy pick up truck and Tundra pick up) had their rigs stolen from off site long term parking while away for work.

There are 3 huge lots off site in San Diego, with shuttle service to the airport. They are pretty nice, covered parking, on time shuttles, 66% cheaper than on site airport parking etc.
Dudes will climb the fence, or enter the lot with another car, then 3 dudes get out and they all break into vehicles. Drive to the cashier and say they lost the ticket. They pay the max amount and then leave the lot and drive across the border.

The same thing can happen in a covered / secure lot as you're asking about. It's not that hard to get in. The key is checking the parking lot policy on driving out without a ticket. Do they take a copy of your drivers license? Picture of the driver? Verify proof through some other means?

I uber/lyft/taxi whenever I can to the airport because if I'm gone more than 2 days it pays for itself round trip with ground transportation, but not everyone lives that close.

So you have to weigh the risks depending on where and for how long you park.

In regards to the comments about gear, I agree. All my gear is kept at home unless I'm hitting the trail... and even then, I have it all on locks or anti theft bolts.

I do that

I just leave them in the mounts on my front bumper. They're very cheap so I'm not too worried about them being stolen, and it saves them from rattling around in the storage area. Plus my winch line is secured onto one of them.

My hitch receiver shackle is locked in place with a hitch locker and threaded with red loctite.

I'm sure someone with a torque wrench and a lot of spare time could unscrew it and steal the rusted ass thing that has been in an accident and save themselves 6-12 bucks if they really wanted to.

Are you going on a trail on the way home from the airport?

Just remove everything, it should be easy to do.

I strip mine down when I come home from the trail. The only things that stay on are the gas cans and spare tire on the swing out because they both have cables and locks attached to them. Cans are always emptied into the tank before the drive home so you can't even siphon them. If you want my cheap Amazon lights off the side of my rack, go for it. I'll pick 2 more up for 10 bucks and rewire them.

Hahaha totally. That' s pet peeve of mine. I see a few people near me that do that, and their tools/high lift are all rusty. Like a high lift isn't hard enough to use even when it's NOT all rusty.

And along those same lines, WTF is the people who drive with LED light bars and fogs on during broad daylight??? It's nice and sunny today, and some tool was behind be with all his aux lighting on.

If I’m going to leave one at airport parking, I usually strip it down pretty good. I even take out pretty much everything inside as well (tools, recovery gear, extra keys to stuff, anything with my home address). We’ve only had trouble with one airport and that was Las Vegas airport. We flew from LV to ND for a few days and when we returned, most of the gas was siphoned out of the tank, the gas cap was still off and the fuel door was still open. I was just happy to see that they didn’t drill a hole in the bottom of the tank. I reported it to airport security and they blew it off like I thought they would. The next time we did that, we left it at a casino/hotel lot and uber’d to the airport.

^^Ditto this^^

In every case there is/was nothing outside or inside for them to just grab and go, yet some drugged up fool felt the need to smash my window at the Marriott one night before I flew out at 4am for the week.

That wasn't a fun trip worrying about my 4R all week. I spent the first 2 days arranging towing, window repairs, police and insurance reports from 3000 miles away.

If uber/lyft isn't your style - like me (I hate being dependent upon someone else for pretty much anything - when I'm ready to go I want to go, no patience waiting for someone to show up), you can rent cars. I've done this - reserve online for in town pick up the day before, drop off at airport. Don't forget to reserve one for airport pick up to drop off on town when you get back.

For a weekend trip, probably not a cost effective choice, but I like doing this when we go on 1 or 2 week trips.

I have an arb front bumper with winch and am afraid to leave it at the trailhead for multi day hikes... no other choice though

Ain't it terrible that this is even a thread? Just Sux that folks cant keep their hands off stuff that dont belong to them.

I've left my rig plenty of times in an airport parking lot with no issues. Definitely remove anything that you can. Especially leave the inside as empty as possible. Always surprised at what people leave in their cars. And that's a general statement, not just with airport parking lots.

In Philly, we have a local car parking service of sorts. You go to their site (around the corner from the airport), pick up one of their guys, drive to the airport, and he drives the car back to their site. When you land and are walking to baggage claim you give them a call. By the time you get outside, your car is waiting for you all warmed up or cooled down. You jump in and go home.

I’ve never actually parking in long term parking at the airport.

Are they still stealing Catalytic Converters? I remember hearing that thieves were sliding under lifted vehicles with Sawzalls and cutting them out. and if i'm not mistaken it had something to do with long term parking..

Use your best judgement and hope for the best.

When my first JKU was my only ride and I was doing short trips I would park at the airport and never had any issues. I took my trail riding gear out, but more out of habit to clean and keep clutter down to a minimum during the week.

Then I had another Jeep - similar build, different city and someone stole a couple of parts off of it when it was parked in a short term lot for less than a day. Since then I have tried to avoid leaving any built ride at the airport.