It was a snow joke as a full-sized sculpture of a Volkswagen Beetle received a parking ticket in Germany recently.



The realistic sculpture was "parked" in a no-parking zone in the town of Aachen and even had wing mirrors and outlines for headlights and the VW badge on its bonnet.



"It was incredibly realistic looking. It looked like you could get into it and drive away once you'd swept the snow off," UK news website, Orange, reported one local saying.



"The wardens eventually realised they'd been had when they tried to scrape the snow off the number plate and found there was no plate, just snow," they added.



The website noted that local police were decidedly chilly towards the prank which we are sure the sun would have eventually got rid of.



A police spokesman said: "We can take a joke as well as the next person and it was a very convincing prank. But whether it was made of metal or snow it was still obstructing a road that should have been clear."