How Did This Stolen Honda Civic End Up Perched Atop A Large Metal Cylinder?

Civic Roundabout Topshot
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Having your car stolen sucks, and recovery is rarely an easy process. Sometimes stolen cars are crashed, sometimes they’re set ablaze, sometimes they’re vandalized, sometimes they’re stripped for parts, and sometimes they’re even exported. However, a recent incident in Scotland takes the cake for weirdness as a stolen Honda Civic was balanced atop a giant cylinder in a very public area.

This car caper took place at Scott’s Street roundabout in Annan, Scotland, along the B721. The BBC reports that on Wednesday, right around the crack of dawn, locals discovered an eighth-generation Honda Civic hatchback perched atop a large metal drum in the middle of the roundabout. A police media release claims that “Subsequent enquiries have established that the vehicle was stolen from an address in Annan,” so it sounds like the Civic didn’t have a particularly far trek.

Police are still trying to figure out how the Civic got up there, with Sergeant Brian Dickson of Annan Police Office saying in a statement, “We are particularly keen to hear from anyone with dash-cam or CCTV footage which may show the car being transported or abandoned.”

Civic Roundabout 1

If we hop on Google Streetview and grab the latest capture of the roundabout, it’s easy to see that there’s no real elevation, nor an obvious berm or something that could’ve effectively served as a ramp. To end up atop that metal drum in that location under its own power, the Civic likely would’ve needed to either enter the roundabout from an oncoming lane or start out in reverse before launching into the air by clipping a fixed object. However, a lack of visible damage suggests that the Civic was likely placed atop the barrel intentionally using a forklift or similar equipment.

Indeed, that’s what British tabloid The Sun reports may have happened. Locals seem to reckon that someone carefully stacked the Civic up there, either as a prank or as revenge, and then just left the scene. It’s possible that the person behind these shenanigans may have brought the large red cylinder to the roundabout as well, given how it doesn’t appear on mapping services.

Civic Roundabout 2

A bigger question is how did people not notice? If we pull up a satellite view of Scott’s Street roundabout, on one of the exists sits a Tesco fuel station. You’d expect drivers to be coming and going through the night, with one potentially seeing the Civic entering its precarious position. If industrial equipment was used to stack the Honda hatchback atop the barrel, it’s hard to believe that nobody in nearby residential areas would’ve noticed. There are homes within 100 meters (328 feet) of the car’s resting place, surely someone must’ve heard something.

I doubt that this search for CCTV and/or dashcam footage will be all for naught. The roundabout in question features plenty of street lighting and several businesses, which suggests that someone’s cameras may have caught the Civic dumper mid-act. As for why the Civic was placed there, that’s yet to officially be seen. On the plus side, the car’s no longer up in the air, so it’s not like Annan has a new roundabout sculpture.

(Photo credits: Twitter/Lag Fan Club, Google Maps)

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46 thoughts on “How Did This Stolen Honda Civic End Up Perched Atop A Large Metal Cylinder?”

  4. “A bigger question is how did people not notice? If we pull up a satellite view of Scott’s Street roundabout, on one of the exists sits a Tesco fuel station. You’d expect drivers to be coming and going through the night, with one potentially seeing the Civic entering its precarious position“

    Tesco fuel stations are frequently unmanned overnight, if they are open at all, and this is a tiny town in Scotland that has been bypassed by the A75. No one is driving through there to anywhere else. The chances of anyone seeing this during the two minutes it would take to stack the Civic up there with a telehandler is about zero.

    No one is going to call the police about this unless they think the English are doing it.

    1. “Telehandler”! I love that the Brits have a fun word for what, in my experience, we Americans call a “big-ass forklift”. Good on ya, mates.

      2. It’s just the official term for what most American construction workers call a Lull. Lull is a brand name like Kleenex or Xerox, but if you want to rent a forklift with a telescoping boom on it, you need to search under Telehandlers. They are distinct from regular forklifts and tend to be found on jobsites rather than at warehouses, doing jobs that might otherwise require a small crane.

  6. Surely some civic-minded resident will accord with the local authorities and provide some insight and clarity into this situation. They might even find themselves a good fit for local government, perhaps leading new elements of a pilot project in urban renewal. It could really be a prelude of great things to come…

    ……. I’ll show myself the door.

    1. An anonymous someone Freed a Honda and became a Legend in their City Today. N-One said, “It was a Breeze… you know, just once in your Life you gotta have a bit of fun and all that Jazz…”

      1. Thank you both for taking us on this Odyssey, it made for a nice Concerto this evening. Such thoughts are an Integra part of this website and hopefully Inspire more people to visit.

  15. I think they need to go to the local pubs and ask if say, eight or so drunk guys were talked into lifting this thing and placing it there, not realizing it was stolen

  16. Shenanigans?

    “The next one of you who says shenanigans is gonna get pistol whipped!”.

    “Hey, Farva, what’s the name of that restaurant you like with all the shit on the walls?”.

  20. As someone who has recently had his truck stolen and recovered*, I can sympathize. At least my truck wasn’t found atop a cylinder.

    *It is my firm belief that whoever stole my truck was looking for the easy button on an LS swap. After they destroyed the steering column and drove it away, they discovered that there wasn’t an LS under the hood, but a lowly Six. They abandoned it in a casino parking garage, and casino security notified the police.

  21. Were there monkeys in that barrel?

    BTW, do you pronounce your last name HUN-dal, as in Attila the, or HOON-doll, as in Michelle Rodriguez?

  23. You think this may belong to the local hoon and the town folk all agreed to this to make a point? If so, I bet all the local cameras weren’t quite functional that night.

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