Owner admits it's 'quite funny' that his BMW floated off down Thames

A BMW owner who watched helplessly as his car floated down the Thames has said ‘the only thing you can do is laugh.’

James Roycroft-Davis’s prized motor was swept away by a freak tidal surge following heavy rain.

He managed to recover it later that day ‘covered in poo’ and says the car is now a ‘total write-off.’

James, 25, had been visiting his girlfriend in Putney, southwest London, on Wednesday afternoon.

He parked up around 2pm on a low-lying ramp at the edge of an embankment.

But when he returned just over two hours later, the BMW Z4 was missing.

He recalled: ‘When I came back it was high tide, a couple of blokes were laughing, saying, “see that car floating down the Thames”, and I went, “oh wait that’s my car”.

‘There was not much we could do. We thought, let’s see where it sinks. It sank about 50 metres away.

‘We had to wait until about 11pm when it was low tide to try and retrieve it.

‘It is a total write-off. We are hoping the insurers will pay out but we doubt they will.’

James said he paid around £5,000 for the vehicle, which also had inside a Barbour jacket, a jumper from Topman, and Asics running shoes – all costing about £200.

The businessman continued: ‘I’m trying to cope with the idea that I’ve just lost upwards of £5,000.

‘In a way, the only thing you can do is laugh.

‘There has been a lot of people taking pictures as it floated down the river. It is quite funny.’

Putney residents know too well what a ‘cruel mistress’ the Thames can be one local resident set up a Facebook page dedicated to posting images of stricken vehicles.

Founder of the Putney Hide Tide Club, Chris Morahan, said: ‘I founded this page to show the hilarious examples of cars being washed away.

‘Only the locals of Putney understand what a cruel mistress the Thames can be. This is a way to laugh at other Londoners misfortunes.’