Excited Dog Takes Mercedes-Benz for Joyride, Rolls Into Wall After Shifting Car out of Park
The dog was happily uninjured and waiting for his owners to return from a quick errand.
A San Francisco couple recently had a ruff day when their dog accidentally knocked their 2001 Mercedes-Benz S430 into neutral, sending it into a retaining wall on their property in the Aptos neighborhood on Friday.
Local news affiliates report that the couple, Janie and Jim Black, parked their car on the shoulder momentarily while leaving their pup named Duke inside. During that time, Duke somehow got his leash caught up on the Benz’s gear shifter, causing it to shift into neutral, likely out of excitement to see his couple return. The car then slowly rolled down the sloped road and into a retaining wall at the foot of their driveway, knocking over trashcans, damaging the wall, and causing quite the scene.
When they went to assess the accident, Duke was just casually standing atop the front seats and appearing as if he’s sitting in the driver’s spot, with a big ‘ol smile, totally oblivious to his accidental wrongdoing. Because, who’s a good boy, right?
No injuries were reported and Duke walked away from the incident unharmed.
Katie Nielsen, a reporter for local affiliate KPIX
tweeted a photo shared by the Blacks, which went viral with over 5,500 likes and 900 retweets.
A lot of you car folk may be wondering, “don’t you have to hold the brake to shift the transmission out of park?” The answer is yes, but the W220 S-Class’s shift-lock can be overridden with a quick thwack on the lever using a hammer, as seen in the video below. That’s in the event the car’s gear lever gets stuck in park and it needs to be towed from a part failure within the shifter, a common failure point in W220s.
So we imagine that a big doggo weighing in at around 80 pounds or so from the looks of it is enough to knock that shifter into neutral.
h/t: Jalopnik
