Ferrari: Children Slide Down a 488 GTB Worth Over 400,000€, Parents Offer 700€ in Compensation

Having a Ferrari usually means worrying about gravel, door dings, or parking spaces that are too narrow. In China, a car owner Ferrari 488 GTB However, he discovered a completely different danger: children who had turned his supercar into a playground. The story, which took place in Kunming, in China’s Yunnan Province, is now going viral on social media. The surveillance footage has already been viewed tens of millions of times.

A Ferrari Turned into a Slide

The owner had left his red Ferrari 488 GTB parked outside while he was away on a business trip. While he was away, four boys under the age of ten reportedly noticed the Italian sports car and decided to go take a closer look.

CCTV footage shows the children climbing onto the car, sitting on the windshield, crossing the roof, and then using the rear window as a slide. They can also be seen handling long bamboo poles near the car’s body. When the owner returned, the damage was devastating. The Ferrari had deep scratches on the hood, roof, fenders, taillights, and some of the glass surfaces. The front bumper was also damaged.

Up to €15,000 in repairs at Ferrari

The owner, a father himself, explains that he initially wanted to resolve the matter amicably. According to his statements to local media, he deliberately chose not to have the car repaired through the Ferrari dealership network. According to him, repairs at an authorized Ferrari dealership would have cost more than 100,000 yuan, or about 15,000 euros. Eager to keep the bill down, he turned to independent repair shops. An initial estimate reportedly came to 48,000 yuan, but a repair using some alternative parts brought the final bill down to 29,360 yuan, or about 4,300 euros.

The case was then referred to the local police station in an effort to reach an out-of-court settlement with the families involved. However, the discussions were unsuccessful. According to the owner, the children’s parents reportedly offered only 5,000 yuan in compensation, or about 700 euros. He also claims that neither the children nor their families offered an apology on their own initiative.

This behavior reportedly convinced the property owner to file a civil lawsuit to obtain full reimbursement for the repairs. In China, children under the age of 14 cannot be placed in administrative detention for this type of offense. Civil liability, however, may be transferred to their legal guardians, who may be required to pay compensation for the damages.

A Ferrari 488 GTB That Became Famous Against Its Will

The car in question is a Ferrari 488 GTB, produced between 2015 and 2020, powered by a 670 ch twin-turbo V8. The owner claims to have paid 3.6 million yuan for it—approximately 460,000 euros—in China. Beyond the anecdote, this case raises a question that extends far beyond China’s borders: To what extent are parents liable when their children cause damage? In Europe as in China, the legal answer exists. But the moral answer seems much harder to pin down, as evidenced by the millions of reactions this video has sparked in China and the 400,000 views it has already accumulated on YouTube.