A homewner in Sydney filmed the moment when a neighbor would have introduced his Tesla, and the confrontation that subsequently unfolded.
Garnet Mae, a 52-year-old director of McMahon's Point, on the lower north coast of Sydney, received the images of the built-in security cameras in his Tesla.
It seemed to show a neighbor who visited the car in the middle of the night and dragged a key along the side of it.
Mr Mae later confronted the man and filmed the interaction. “It seems that you have closed my car,” he can be heard in the video of the Tuesday incident.
“My red Tesla. You did not realize, but the auto films. It makes a video, so you tinker my car, I have video certificate that you tinker my car. '
“I just walked by,” the man replied.
But Mr Mae continued to confront the alleged keyer: “No – you can see that you deliberately touch the car with tests.”
He offered the man the option to pay $ 800 in advance for the damage, warning that he would otherwise call the police and “you will be accused of malignant damage.”
The video seemed to show that his neighbor visited the car in the middle of the night and drag a key along the side
Mr Mae later confronted the man and filmed the interaction
Mr. Mae then filmed that he was walking away with what seemed to be a Ream of cash.
“$ 800 from the neighbor who scratched my Tesla,” he said.
Wednesday with Daily Mail Australia, Mr Mae spoke some background information to the alleged incident.
He had parked his Telsa in a place reserved for visitors in a unity complex around the corner of his house in McMahon's point when it was reportedly classified.
Parking was hard to find on his street and a resident of the complex had previously told him that he was free to use the parking lot.
“We woke up the next day and my ex-partner is as if the car was classified,” he said.
He was shocked when he looked at the security cameras of the car the night before.
“I was a bit shocked and surprised that an older gentleman would combine my car, but given my recent interactions with neighbors it could have been a number of people who closed my car.”
Mr Mae filmed himself away with a series of cash
He asked the neighbor to sign this memorandum after the alleged incident
He returned to the unit complex and after knocking on some doors he was able to detect the alleged Vandal.
He explained that he had asked every $ 800 to cover the surplus of insurance and had not reported the alleged perpetrator to the police.
It comes to the $ 100,000-plus electric vehicles in the midst of a wave of vandalism.
Auto expert James Ward has called Tesla the most polarizing brand in Australia.
“People have this really strange love-hate relationship with the brand,” Mr. Ward told Daily Mail Australia.
'You almost see this cultic behavior of these diehard fans who will not hear a bad word about it that is being said about it.
“But then you have others who feel a little threatened and think:” You are not going to take my diesel ute or my V8 commodore away “or whatever it is.”
But Mr. Ward said that vandalism was not necessarily powered by an aversion to electric cars, and claimed that although there were a 'beautiful flash -looking electric BMWs and Mercedes', he had only heard of people who approach Teslas.
It is a disturbing trend that touches fear in the heart of every Tesla owner: returning to their beloved vehicle to discover that someone has scored a key about his slender bodywork
He compared to the possession of a Tesla for the early days of Apple MacBook computers, when many people believed that you had used an 'Apple Mac or you were nothing' – to generate a sense of inferiority among the less fortunate.
He also suggested that vandals could be driven by an irrational hatred against Tesla's billionary owner, Elon Musk.
But in the case of Mr Mae's Tesla, the alleged Vandal seems to be motivated by a simple desire to protect a visitor's parking space.
“No other brand on the road polarizes as much as Tesla, and I think there is a lot of the Elon Musk factor, since he is a very idiosyncratic, very straight-leaning personality,” said Mr. Ward.
As a result, Mr. Ward said that many people saw Musk's cars as a target '.
“It's the idea that you scratch a Tesla because you don't like Elon Musk through a kind of strange psychological association,” he added.
Furthermore, Mr. Ward said that people were often activated by resentment and jealousy.
“There is definitely an element of jealousy there and you always saw it, if you had parked a Mazda and a Mercedes side by side, the Mercedes would be deployed – not the Mazda,” he said.
'Especially where times are a bit difficult, people think:' You will not show off wealth for me. I'll show you it. '' '
A wave of vandalism incidents involved in Elon Musk have been involved in electric vehicles in recent months have reached the headlines throughout Australia for one simple reason: the ignorant perpetrators are caught in the action
In another incident, Mr Mae and his 63-year-old neighbor were filmed about a circular
Mr. Mae has had problems with Sydney neighbors in the past.
He made the headlines last December after trying to help his brother resolve a border conflict in Redfern.
The tensions escalated when the older neighbor reportedly set up a temporary fence, which blocked the access to Mr Mae's brother's trash can.
Mr. Mae then removed the screenings and started cutting a Rosebush on his property with his circular saw.
Images showed the neighbor who approached Mr. Mae before he shouted: “I will take your f *** ING off” and reportedly grab the electric saw of him.
Mr. Mae remained calm when the neighbor was said to push him around the outdoor space and struggled in front of the saw.
