This is the moment mechanics dismantle a car after an octopus bought for dinner slipped away and vanished inside the vehicle, leaving its owners searching for days before it was finally discovered beneath the seats.

The bizarre incident happened in Liaocheng, Shandong Province, China, on 2nd March.

According to the vehicle owner, named only as Mr Ren, he and his wife had bought two octopuses from a seafood shop that morning for CNY 63 (GBP 7).

The seafood shop reportedly cleaned the octopuses and placed them in a plastic bag.

Mr Ren said he placed the bag, which had not been tied closed, on the front passenger seat of the couple’s car before driving home.

When the couple later took the bag out of the car that evening, they realised one of the octopuses was missing.

Soon afterwards a strange smell began spreading through the vehicle.

Mechanic removes octopus that crawled inside a car in Shandong, China. The video was shared on Douyin - the Chinese version of TikTok on March 4, 2026. Note: Photo is a screenshot from a video. (AsiaWire)

Mr Ren searched the car but could not find the missing octopus, and the smell continued to grow stronger over the following days.

After two days of unsuccessful searching, he eventually drove the vehicle to a local 4S dealership service centre for help.

Video shows mechanics removing the passenger seat and dismantling parts of the centre armrest as they tried to locate the source of the smell.

Technicians eventually located the missing octopus lodged in a narrow gap beneath the armrest between the seats.

According to Mr Ren, the strong fishy smell released when the octopus was removed was so intense that it nearly made the mechanic vomit.

The dismantling work reportedly cost the owner CNY 400 (GBP 43).

(Aloysius Fernandes /AsiaWire)