Imfoto/Shutterstock It's bad enough when you hit a wild animal large enough to total your car. It's even worse when you're allowed to claim the carcass for meat, but someone else swipes it before you have the chance. That's what happened to Tim Wyland after he struck and killed a moose with his VW Passat, reports Cowboy State Daily. In the early morning hours, Wyland was driving to work when he suddenly saw three moose standing in the road. He swerved to avoid them, but a fourth moose he didn't see in time became an involuntary crash test dummy, smashing the front and driver's side of the Passat. The moose and car were killed instantly, and Wyland suffered a few cuts from the driver's window shattering. He had to climb out that window because the door was jammed shut. Authorities responded to the scene and a game warden identified the moose as a yearling, and told Wyland he could fill out a form and keep the carcass for meat, which he did. After getting a ride home and returning to the scene just a few hours after the crash, the moose was gone. Someone had dragged it down a U.S. Forest Service road and harvested it for themselves. Dragging it across gravel, as well as a cattle guard, had ruined most of the meat that would otherwise have been good, leaving Wyland without the meat, or a car. Moose meatballs Justin Hughes / Jalopnik Go ahead, make all the Roadkill Cafe jokes you want. While no restaurant is about to serve up "Chunk of Skunk" anytime soon, it's actually legal in many states to keep the carcass that jumped out in front of your car. Wyoming allows it, and while every state has its own rules, most offer a legal process you can follow to claim your road kill. A few states do prohibit harvesting road kill, so check the rules or ask law enforcement at the scene of the crash. Secretary of Health and Human Services RFK Jr. has been picking up roadkill his whole life, and look how well he turned out. That said, please don't go "hunting" with your car. You might be hungry, but even at today's prices, a trip to the grocery store costs less than a car. It's also less dangerous. Though Wyland's Passat was totaled, he's still lucky to have gotten away with minor injuries. Hitting a moose is 13 times deadlier than hitting a deer, according to the American Council on Science and Health. An adult moose weighs well over 1,000 pounds, and stands so tall that a car is more likely to hit its legs than its body, causing the creature to fall on top of the windshield or roof. That's not exactly how you want to pick up a drive-thru meal.