Imagine you have have to go to the hospital for a bit of surgery. You leave your car safe and sound in its parking space, reasonably expecting it to be there when you get back. That wasn’t the case for a man only identified as “Mr. G,” whose BMW was mistakenly seized and crushed by his local government in a case of “maladministration” while he was laid up.
In late 2016, Mr. G went into Wrexham Maelor Hospital in Wales for ankle surgery. After three days, he returned home to discover that his BMW 323 was missing from its parking spot, reports the BBC in a new and horrific story. He reported the car as missing to the police, which did some investigating and found that it had been mistakenly classified as abandoned and then crushed.
First of all, what the hell, and secondly, what the hell!
Bizarrely, the official appointed to the case said that there was “no evidence the council tried to identify the owner,” despite a council officer said that they had searched the vehicle database and didn’t find the BMW’s registered owner.
Understandably, Mr. G was pissed and called the whole fiasco “utter ineptitude.” He went on to say, according to the outlet, “I was utterly horrified and so confused because I couldn’t understand why they took away a vehicle that was registered to me at my address.”
He’d paid £14,000 (about $18,000) for the car in 2004, spent £2,500 (about $3,300) on a new engine and braking system and had around £2,000 (about $2,600) worth of tools in the trunk. It doesn’t seem like he’s getting anything close to that sum back, as the council will pay him just £2,750 (about $3,600) for the car and the trouble.
Nick Bennett, who works for Welsh public services, said, “This is as classic a case of maladministration as I have witnessed in four years of office.”
Yeah, no shit dude! I get pissed when someone scrapes my car. I don’t know what I’d do if I found out it had been mistakenly crushed. I’d probably sue.