New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes was shocked to learn recently that a vintage Mercedes-Benz, which a car repair shop owner bought for him at his request, may have belonged to Hitler.

“He was surprised,” Zenop Tuncer, owner of Euro Tech Motors in Edgewater, N.J., told CBS News. “We were all surprised.”

According to the report, Daibes asked Tuncer to find him a Mercedes-Benz 540K. But Tuncer could only procure a 1942 Mercedes 320 Cabriolet D convertible, which Daibes agreed to buy.

Tuncer noted that the car looked like a military one; he even found patches covering what were once places for a flag post and a siren. “It’s definitely for a general,” he told CBS.

Moreover, the car’s serial number featured a small eagle atop a swastika, indicating it had been made for the Nazis.

When Tuncer contacted Mercedes-Benz in search of replacement parts, he was shocked to hear that the car belonged to the Nazi leader. The original owner did not know the history of the car and said his grandfather brought it to the United States from Germany after the war.

Daibes said he paid $175,000 for the car a year ago and has recently turned down an offer of $1.5 million.

“It’s Hitler’s car, he’s a devil, but you know, he’s still part of history,” Daibes was quoted as saying. “From a financial point of view the car is worth more money than when I paid for it, so that’s the only way I look at it.” — ynetnews.com