“That $15 wash just cost y’all $150K”: Truck owner enters car wash without emptying the bed. Then the machine breaks down

https://dailydot.com/empty-truck-bed-car-wash-tension-wire/

Anna Good Feb 27, 2026 · 2 mins read
“That $15 wash just cost y’all $150K”: Truck owner enters car wash without emptying the bed. Then the machine breaks down
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What looked like a routine car wash errand quickly went sideways for TikToker @kyle.corbett5.

On Feb. 25, 2026, he drove his pickup truck into a car wash… but forgot that he had a huge roll of wire in his truck bed.

He posted a video filmed from inside the car wash, standing outside his truck. A full spool of high tensile wire sat in the truck bed that looked normal at first glance, until he panned the camera upward.

A significant amount of the wire had unraveled and wrapped itself tightly around the overhead brush, which was resting on the white car behind him. This shut down the car wash completely until it could be removed.

TikTok commenters did not hold back

People wasted little time in the comments section pointing out what they saw as an obvious mistake. One commenter wrote, "Congrats you just bought a car wash! 😂"

Another leaned into sarcasm, joking, "People in the comments acting like they’ve never driven through a carwash with a spool of high tensile wire before."

Meanwhile, someone else added, "Car in the back watching the steel wool lower down," and shared a meme image of a terrified man looking up.

Some viewers focused on hypothetical signage that should have been outside the car wash. "He ignored the 'truck beds must be empty' sign," one TikToker pointed out. Others argued that employees should have stopped him.

X users shared horror stories and debated who was at fault

The clip eventually made its way to X, where the jokes turned darker and more detailed. Users there shared stories from their own car wash experiences and offered grim predictions about repair costs.

One person, @hoppah_1776, recalled a similar incident from a teenage job at a car wash. "I worked at a car wash as a teenager," they wrote. "The overhead brush picked that chain up and beat the back of that pickup into scrap, then proceeded to beat the brand new Caddy behind it into scrap before someone shut the line down.  The entire line had  big windows so customers could lovingly watch their cars being cleaned, and the Caddy owner went berserk as he saw his new car being trashed by a big rotating chain flail."

@GKunstwerk joked, "Car wash expert here. This is not supposed to happen. You definitely don't want this." Meanwhile, @mfBRAT_eth commented on the confidence it took to share the video at all.

"Usually a large swath of embarrassment would prevent a dude from posting this," they wrote. "not this guy 🤣"

Some attempted practical advice. @GnarlyRedDwarf claimed, "The facility is fine, just get some tin-snips." However, another user quickly replied that bolt cutters would likely be required instead.

Finally, @Titor2035 pushed back on the idea that attendants should have intervened. "Ive never been to a car washes where anyone was there. Lol," they wrote, noting that many locations run unattended.