A German man was shocked after he bought a luxury car at an auction and later discovered what was inside its engine. The man, whose name was not disclosed by German media, told police in Ludwigsburg that he realized there was a fault in his used Mercedes GLE the moment he pressed the brake pedal after buying it at an auction. He said the car barely slowed down, no matter how hard he pressed the brake, so he called a tow truck and took it straight to a repair shop. Upon inspecting the braking system, mechanics found that instead of licensed brake pads, the car was equipped with a wooden brake block with the word "Primbo" written on it in clear letters. These parts provided no significant stopping power and had already damaged the car's discs. Hans Bauer, a technical safety expert who assisted in the investigation, told the German newspaper "Stuttgarter Nachrichten": "This is not an act of a hobbyist, but criminal negligence," adding that "the wood wears out immediately upon contact with the metal discs and has no chance of stopping a car weighing several tons." In turn, German police have opened a criminal case against the previous owner on charges of tampering with vital car safety components. The reason they replaced the car's brake pads with wooden blocks remains unknown.