In a viral TikTok video, a Denver man shows how his car’s front window was smashed in by the automatic carwash, stoking fears among viewers.
The incident was shared in a two-part video series. In the first TikTok, Beau Stottlemyer (@beaustottlemyer21) shows viewers the car wash’s security camera footage of what went down. Stottlemyer’s truck moves through the car wash, getting soaped and sprayed with water as normal until one of the wash mechanisms seemingly buckles and pushes into Stottlemyer’s car.
The video jumps to a photo and video clip that more clearly shows the damage. It appears one of the car wash’s brush arms pushed into Stottlemyer’s front window, causing it to shatter towards the top center and sprinkling tiny shards of glass all over the front seat area.
“Almost died in the carwash,” the text overlay on the TikTok read.
@beaustottlemyer21 Almost died in the carwash 🤠#carwash #fyp #fullsend #monday #sad #storytime ♬ Oh No – Kreepa
In a follow-up video, Stottlemyer went into more detail about what actually happened. He explains that one of the brushes got caught in another car wash mechanism. It also got caught on the roof of Stottlemyer’s truck and ended up going horizontally into his truck.
“They’re paying for this and they gave me a rental car,” Stottlemyer adds.
The TikToker also addresses viewers who presumed the incident happened because Stottlemyer didn’t have the car in neutral and slammed on his brakes. The driver says he was in neutral but had to break when he perceived what was happening.
“That thing was trying to kill me, so I definitely slammed on my breaks,” he says. “I probably shouldn’t have slammed on my breaks, but it was kinda a scary situation seeing that go through my windshield.”
@beaustottlemyer21 CARWASH PART 2 🐓🤠 #carwash #part2 #crazy #finaldestination #greenscreen #cars #greenscreenvideo #fyp #part3? #fullsend #monday #storytime #sad #saturday ♬ original sound – Beau Stottlemyer
Stottlemyer went on to show the much smaller sedan rental the car wash got for him. He suggests it was the “worst rental on the lot,” but didn’t sound overly bothered.
Combined, the videos have more than 6.4 million views and over 5,000 comments.
Viewers in the comments had mixed reactions to the situation.
Some said the video confirmed one of their fears.
“This is one of my biggest fears. I have the worst anxiety going through the car wash,” one of the most liked comments read.
“See i knew it wasn’t an irrational fear,” another said.
“Having seconds thoughts about going to car washes like this now! ugh,” a third wrote.
Others shared how they would have reacted in the situation.
“Ooohhhh nooooo ohhhh nooo I def would have passed out,” one viewer said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Stottlemyer for comment via email.
