Crushing cars to set an example is something that never really took off in New Zealand, but it seems to be a hit with authorities around the world.
The latest crushing video comes to us fresh from the United Kingdom, where just recently, a BMW M3 Touring was destroyed after allegedly being built from stolen parts.
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Like most crushing sagas, there are two complex sides to this story with the local police force stating that they acted within their power, and others claiming that it was crushed before the judge made their ruling.
First published by the West Midlands Police, the video shows the green M3 Touring in all its glory at car meets before an officer explains that it was built using stolen parts. A digger then tosses it into a crusher, where it meets an untimely death.
There are a few things to unpack here - first of all, BMW never built a Touring version of the F80 M3, so this was a homebuilt creation, consisting of a couple of 3 Series' mashed together.
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While a number of F80 M3 Touring conversions exist legally, this one was supposedly driving around with plates off a 320d, so police seized the car, and passed it on to the "stolen vehicle expert squad" for examination.
Upon closer inspection, police reportedly found that the car was built from stolen parts that were linked to a pair of M3 thefts in 2018 and 2019.
Adding to this, police said that the M3 was a "cut and shut" job, which is where two or more cars are welded together to create an incredibly dangerous road-going creation.
"This BMW looked great on the outside, you can't fault the paint job, but scratch beneath the veneer and it was just tag-welded and structurally unsafe," commented Police Constable Mark Wheaver of the Central Motorway Police Group.
"Whoever had bodged this car together had gone to significant lengths to try and hide its true identity. Numbers had been ground off and stickers removed but we have expert vehicle examiners who use techniques to overcome these obstacles."
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While this seems like an easy case to close, a workshop that completed work on this car claims that the crushing happened before a ruling was made, meaning law enforcement may have to fork out for it.
"This car was crushed before the [owner's] case was actually heard in court," said Unit 17 in an Instagram post.
"The judge that heard this case ordered the vehicle should go back to its [sic] owner, unfortunately by then the car had already been crushed, following this there was a further dispute which West Midlands Police were ordered to compensate for the value of the vehicle which could not be determined. We don't know how much but that has now been settled and the police have paid for the vehicle that they destroyed."