Almost four months ago, Metro.co.uk reported that BMW had embarked on a crusade against canine urination. Describing the Canine Repellent Alloy Protection System, Dr. Hans Zoff stated the obvious.

‘Research shows that most BMW customers love to keep their cars clean – but dog fouling is a constant irritant.’

They even brought in an animal rights group to sell their case, albeit with a weird choice of words.

But Lola Forpi, from campaign group Put Animals First, said: ‘All motorists must expect to go through the odd puddle here and there. As well as going for a drive, we’d recommend owners regularly go for “walkies” as well if they want to have a very relieved pet.’

Even though the acronym (and the names) smelled strongly of a gag, one wouldn’t have given a crap about it, for BMW’s penchant for weird acronyms is rather well known. For example would V care for A car called GINA? Particularly if the body work was all cloth and the publicity pics showed an unfortunate tear that reminded one of feminine plumbing. Sorry, no pussy footing around THAT bush. So, C.R.A.P.S would have hardly caused me to blink.

But the date was what made it a no brainer. It was a straight forward April Fools gag and it made Jalopnik’s Ten Best…Or Worst…April Fools’ Day Automotive Gags. And today when I saw this post on Jalopnik’s feed, I was in splits. It seems that some Indian journalists failed to get the message about April 1 (or the highlighted disclaimer that Metro.uk put below the article!)

Four months since, some lazy moron at IANS lands up at the C.R.A.P.S post on Metro.uk. His/her eyes light up since no one seems to have caught on to this yet in India. And bam, its on the newswire. And then today, the TOI picks it up and it is history.

Everyone and their pet dog in India has known for years that the collective IQ of TOI staffers is rather low. And now via Jalopnik, the rest of the world knows too.

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