PIKEVILLE, Ky. — What began as a traffic stop for a seat belt violation ended up sending a Floyd County man to jail for auto theft and drug charges.

Pikeville Police spotted Michael Joe Davis, 35, of Betsy Layne, driving along U.S. 23 near the Shelbiana Food City just before 8 a.m. Thursday. Davis was reportedly not wearing a seat belt and was driving 40 miles an hour.

After pulling him over, police determined that Davis had an outstanding warrant and that the Hyundai Tucson he was driving had been reported stolen from Walmart the night before.

Not only that, but the condition of the vehicle left officers stunned.

“I’ve recovered several stolen cars over years,” Public Information Officer Tony Conn said. “We’ve recovered a bunch of them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car in this kind of shape without being in a collision …

“Inside was basically destroyed. The mirror was broke off the window. They had punched the dash, which means anything valuable in the dash, the radio, the GPS screen, anything like that, I call it the ‘brain screen,’ was taken out of the vehicle, stolen out of the vehicle.

“And then, the vehicle was really loud. The sound of vehicle was really loud when they started it up and put it on the rollback. So we raised the hood of the vehicle. Wires had been cut on the vehicle. And the floorboard, the floor panel had been cut out of the vehicle and the catalytic converter had been stolen out of the vehicle also. I’ve never seen anyone cut the floor panel out of a vehicle to get the catalytic converter out of it, but this vehicle was done that way.”

Police also found about 16 grams of meth in the vehicle.

Davis was arrested and charged with auto theft, meth possession and several traffic violations.