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A former New Zealand beauty queen looking after her brother's $126,000 Maserati while he is on holiday says she is still trying to decide when to tell him it has been picked up and dropped on its roof.
Rachel Huljich - a Miss New Zealand who once defied Prime Minister Helen Clark - had parked her brother Jason's 1999 3200 GT Maserati in an exclusive street in Sydney's Elizabeth Bay, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Her brother is on holiday in South America.
"I haven't decided whether I'll tell him now or when he comes back," Ms Huljich told the newspaper. A building worker from a construction company tried to move the car by hoisting it into the air with a forklift, but dropped it on the roadway.
Eyewitness Brad Harrison said: "He picked up the car with his forklift, and ... suddenly the car rolled over and fell on its roof. It was a large crunch."
The car sustained a smashed roof and windows.
Resident Stephen Gray said workers had been moving cars in the street with forklifts while working on a four-storey building.
"They've been doing it for months now," he said. "It's outrageous and just really arrogant."
Police inspector Peter Brooks said: "Only council and the police have the right to move cars from a street," he said.
Ms Huljich appeared at the 2002 Miss World contest against the wishes of Helen Clark.
Some nations were calling for the event in Nigeria to be boycotted because a woman there had been sentenced to be stoned to death for having a child out of wedlock.
Ms Clark said at the time it would not be a "good look" for New Zealand to participate, but Ms Huljich, then 17, went to the contest, which was eventually staged in London.
- NZPA
