Front-end loader ruins car

When Kelsey Dittmer finally got time off work this week to collect his car from an impound yard he found it in a ‘‘shocking state’’.

The 2000 Ford Focus station wagon was damaged when it was moved by a front-end loader at the Carterton District Council yard and to top it off the stereo was missing. The council has admitted the car was damaged when it was moved and had offered to buy the car for $400, a price Dittmer described as ‘‘insulting’’.

He said he paid $3000 for the car last year and now thought that because the chassis was bent it could be a write-off.

‘‘I will not be taking the offer. The car was in good condition before it ended up in their yard. It’s only done 200,000km and if you look online for a similar car they are around 2 or 3 grand.’’

The car was impounded on May 23 but Dittmer could not afford to take time off work to pick it up and the yard was not open at weekends. ‘‘I know the car was legally towed but I was pretty pissed off to see the state it was in.

‘‘The radiator was all bent ... and the chassis was as well. I got a real surprise when I looked inside and the stereo was gone.’’

The car was towed because he parked it outside his garage, blocking the footpath outside his house, while he was at work.

Council planning and regulatory manager Dave Gittings said they were reviewing their procedures.

Dittmer said the stereo had since been returned.

‘‘It sounds like they just made a mistake because they thought it [the car] was unclaimed.’’

He is still in negotiations with the council on the car’s valuation and it remains in the yard.