A Tesla owner who says he bought his vehicle mere days ago is distraught after another man vandalized it with a baseball bat.
TikTok user @adidasemoji posted the original video that shows the incident on Aug. 29. It has amassed more than 1.4 million views, along with additional views on several follow-up videos posted to his account.
In the first video, the creator shows a view of the passenger-side door and the rear right side of the vehicle from one of the cameras built into Tesla models.
What happened according to the video
The video shows a man pulling up next to @adidasemoji’s car in a parking lot. Then, he gets out with a baseball bat in hand and takes four whacks at the side of the car with it. Finally, he gets back in his car and drives off.
Watching the footage, @adidasemoji is visibly upset. He says, “Bro, are you [expletive] serious?” He adds, “I literally just got this car three days ago. Look at this.”
The TikToker is reduced to several more stunned reactions before going outside the car to survey the damage. You can see several dimples in the door panel.
How did he get the footage?
Tesla vehicles include a feature called Sentry Mode, which, according to the online owner’s manual for the Model Y, is able to record activity that occurs around the vehicle.
“When enabled, your vehicle’s cameras and sensors (if equipped) remain powered on and ready to record suspicious activity around your vehicle when Model Y is locked and in Park,” the manual states. “Think of Sentry Mode as an intelligent vehicle security system that alerts you when it detects possible threats nearby.”
However, the battery needs to be at least 20 percent charged for Sentry Mode to work. The video shows red lights flashing on the car after the first few blows from the baseball bat, indicating that Sentry Mode was on and perhaps prevented further damage.
Why did this happen?
Was this a hatred of Tesla CEO Elon Musk? That’s apparently what prompted a vandal to deface 34 Cybertucks with “[expletive] Elon” in a June incident.
On a Reddit thread posted to r/teslamotors three years ago, users discussed this possibility. This discussion happened before Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now known as X) put the CEO and his political views under a brighter spotlight.
In response to a question about whether Tesla vandalism happens more often, one user expressed skepticism. They wrote, “I don’t think it’s more prevalent, but Sentry Mode makes it more newsworthy. My Audi was vandalized far more times than my Teslas but nobody cares about that.”
Another user chimed in, “With evidence, it becomes newsworthy.”
Commenters on the video marveled that people would target a Tesla given its built-in video capabilities. As one user put it, “You have to be real silly. To think to destroy a Tesla and not get caught.”
A development in the case
The creator returned with another video on Thursday to share a “major update” on the case.
He said, “The police station called me about 30 minutes ago, and I finally got a detective on my case.” He added that the detective believed the video evidence would result in an arrest and charges.
Additionally, he shared in that video that the damage to his car cost almost $3,000 to repair.
@adidasemoji uhm somone help find this person thank you un advance this was in Somerset New jersey police report was made hopefully something can be done about this ! #tesla #vandalized #model3 #cars ♬ original sound – adidasemoji
The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via TikTok and Instagram direct message.
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