VIN switcheroo a crushing defeat for Mini Cooper

It won't be a merry Christmas for the Mini enthusiast who bought a classic Mini Cooper in England and had it shipped to the United States.

The long arm of U.S. Customs and Border Protection reached out and seized the car in May. And then in early December, after the legal maneuvers concluded, a giant claw picked apart and smashed the iconic car to smithereens in a snowy New Jersey scrapyard. The person who bought the classic Mini lost it and all his or her money.

Since last summer, the feds have been cracking down on illegally imported vehicles; most are less than 25 years old and don't meet U.S. safety and emissions standards. Vehicles 25 years or older are exempt from those standards. 

The crushed car, thought to be a 2000 model, had its VIN exchanged from a Mini made in 1988.

U.S. Customs, working with authorities in the United Kingdom in a program dubbed "Operation Atlantic," have targeted two vehicles popular with American collectors: the original Mini Cooper and the Land Rover Defender. 

Because of those vehicles' long production runs and few cosmetic changes, it is difficult to tell when they were manufactured. 

Gordon Roberts, deputy chief inspector with Britain's Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, said he regretted the destruction of the Mini. 

"If that vehicle is legitimate and lawful, it would break my heart," he told New Jersey's Star-Ledger.