Melvin Butler of Auto Salvage, left, and Jared Bekhuis of Regent Car Court, chat about the Ford Falcon XR6 which was written off after one of Bekhuis' potential customers got it stuck at Oreti Beach.

When an Invercargill car salesman was waiting anxiously for his car to be returned, he had no idea it was stuck in the ocean at Oreti Beach.

Regent Car Court salesman Jared Bekhuis said a potential customer and his two friends took a $15,000 Ford Falcon XR6 for a 15-minute test drive on Tuesday. But he began to feel uneasy as 15 minutes ticked past, and called a few of his colleagues.

"They told me not to worry about it until it had been more than an hour."

About two hours after the trio had driven off the lot, Bekhuis received a call from a fellow salesperson.

"She said 'Jared, your Falcon's at the beach.' I said `yeah right 'and laughed it off as a prank, 'cos we do that a bit here. But it turns out she was right."

When he arrived at the beach, the trio were standing there dripping wet, he said. At no point did they offer an explanation.

"Prior to the test-drive they talked to me, but after they hardly said a word.

"There was just no remorse."

According to witnesses he spoke to at Oreti Beach, they watched the car being driven head-first into the waves repeatedly.

"It's like they were trying to wreck it," Bekhuis said.

"I thought the guy [the customer] was a bit strange, but you can't judge a book by its cover, he had a full drivers licence and I had all his details. I've sold more expensive cars [than the Falcon] to rougher people."

A salvage operator drove the trio back to the car lot while Bekhuis made them wait until police arrived.

Despite several attempts using four-wheel-drive vehicles, it took a specialist salvage truck to pull the Falcon out of the sand, and it was ruined, he said.

"There was sand up to your ankles...water and sand in the cupholders...as soon as salt water gets to an engine, that's it."

David Sutton, who said he was driving, explained the incident by saying ``I got stuck."

Acting Sergeant Todd Utteridge said police were investigating.

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