What the heck happened to this?

We were going through the warehouse to see what kind of stuff we could get rid of (or I could fix in a video) when we came across this. That is the pinch roller on a Otari MX5050 4 Channel reel to reel. This thing has been sitting in the warehouse for a number of years along with about 12 other MX5050 2 channel units and none of the others have done this.

I have no idea what happened. If anyone else has ever seen this kind of failure please leave a comment.

I wonder if I can find a replacement and I better look carefully inside before I turn this thing on.