It started with a Mercedes-Benz of Princeton employee shooting a short video of a car that was getting work done at the dealership. That video was then posted to the dealer's Instagram account.

The post showed how the Mercedes was being transformed into a police car, with emergency lights and a black-and-white police motif. "We are sponsoring this 2003 E 55 AMG with the Mercer County Prosecutors Office. She will have a lot of surprises inside & under the hood. Stay tuned she's not done yet," it said.

Someone then posted it on Reddit, and an online conversation ensued, questioning how and why the prosecutor's office got the car, why the dealership seemed to be working with authorities, and questioning if the entire deal was legal.

One poster said it was "stolen" by the prosecutor's office, calling it, "a completely unethically and unlawfully taken vehicle, snatched from an innocent owner."

Not true, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri says.

His office did seize the car through a forfeiture case filed against the owner after investigators found marijuana in it following a traffic stop in Hopewell, in 2014.

The prosecutor shared the November 2016 court ruling in which a judge awarded ownership to the prosecutor's office.

Onofri said his office is turning the car into a specialty vehicle for youth drug education programs - like a DARE police car, Onofri said.

"The folks from our forfeiture unit think it would be great to (use it) to try and connect with kids," Onofri said. (New Jersey now uses the LEAD program, Law Enforcement Against Drugs, after years of using DARE, Drug Abuse Resistance Education).

This Mercedes formerly belonged to Craig Ocleppo, of Hillsborough. (Actually, it was titled to his father, but a judge found that it was really Craig's since nobody else ever used it.)

Hopewell Township police pulled Ocleppo over in October 2014 for speeding and the officer noticed a strong smell of marijuana, so they impounded the vehicle. A search found 155 grams of marijuana - or 5 1/2 ounces, a third of a pound - in three separate packages.

Craig Ocleppo, police photo

Ocleppo was charged with drug dealing crimes, and the prosecutor's office moved to seize the car, arguing it was being used as part of the alleged drug dealing - a common argument in forfeiture proceedings, which occur in civil court.

A judge agreed, finding merit that the car was transporting drugs, and thus an "instrumentality of a crime."

"The court points to the odor of marijuana so strong as to be noticed by the patrol car following the Ocleppo vehicle just prior to the stop, the haze in the car, and the odor of marijuana coming from the defendant's person," the ruling says.

The ruling also says the marijuana was, "so large that it lends itself to sharing, selling, or otherwise distributing even if it was in a single package. The fact that there were three separate packages further bolsters the court's opinion because multiple packages tends to make it easier to share, sell or distribute than if it was all clumped together."

The 2014 criminal case against Ocleppo was later downgraded from Mercer County Superior Court to Hopewell Township's municipal court in 2015, and is still pending, Ocleppo's lawyer Mitchell E. Ignatoff said.

New Jersey's civil forfeiture laws do not require a person to be found guilty - or even charged in some cases - for authorities to take ownership of propertry.

"Mercer County is really aggressive about forfeiture, and the statute lets them do it," Ignatoff said. "The language lets them do it."

"Do I think it's right? No, I don't think it's right," Ignatoff said. "That's the law at the moment"

Onofri said while the prosecutor's office has long targeted vehicles from alleged drug dealers, he's changed the forfeiture unit's tactics a bit since he took over the office in 2015.

Formerly, many forfeited vehicles were put into the prosecutor's fleet, while some were auctioned off.

Onofri's auctioning off more of the vehicles after getting vehicles' titles, and putting the money back into crime fighting and programs, everything from buying gear for police departments, to sponsoring the Police Athletic Leagues (PAL).

"We put the money back into the community," he said.

For this one, though, Onofri thought the vehicle would be a good conversation piece and they should have it available for community events and parades, so kids will approach it. Then officers can discuss things like drug use and guns, he said.

"It's going to be able to get the kids in and so the kids don't feel they're being lectured to," Onofri said.

Onofri said the car is not done yet, but it will be rolling in parades and parked at community events when the work's done. And, he said, the work is being paid for from forfeiture funds.

The Mercedes dealership, in Lawrence, did not respond to a request for comment, but Onofri said they're behind it as part of their community outreach. "They support it."

Meanwhile, Ocleppo, in April 2016, was charged with numerous felony crimes in Somerset County after authorities found 107 pounds of marijuana on his property, as well as 10 firearms and more than $69,000 in cash.

That case is pending trial.

Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.