My mother saw her “unfixable” car driving through town

A few years ago my mam finally got to have her dream car (a used audi). This car was her pride and joy, everyone around the place knew her in her car. A few weeks ago the car breaks down, she brings it to the mechanic (not our usual mechanic) and he says it’s unfixable, engines gone, only good for scrap and gave her a few hundred euro for it. My mother is heartbroken, that was her dream car and she won’t be able to afford another car like that. Fast forward to today, after weeks of my mam pining for her old car back, just by chance she happened to be in town when she saw HER CAR driving through the town. She goes straight to the mechanic looking for an explanation and he says he sold it and it was fixed for €1700 even though it was “unfixable” a few weeks ago. My mam is absolutely devastated about this, is there anything that can be done to reunite her with her car? Probably not I know it’s just a sad situation for the family