Police hunt for vandal who spray painted obscene message to Elon Musk on dozens of Cybertrucks
Police in Florida’s Fort Lauderdale are on the hunt of a vandal who spray painted an expletive-laden message on 34 Tesla Cybertrucks parked in a lot.
The graffiti reportedly came to light early on Friday when a passerby noticed the vandalised trucks in a parking lot leased by Tesla while walking his dog.
Police confirmed to local news station WPLG that at least 34 of the cars, each worth around $80,000, were damaged with vandals spray-painting “F*** You Elon” on their backs.
The Cybertrucks, which are collectively worth about $2.7m, were later wiped clean in the evening, local news reported.
Social media influencers and other passersby stopped to take photos of the vandalism.
“I just heard about it, and I came out here to see if it was true,” one TikToker told WPLG.
In the months since their release, Tesla’s Cybertrucks have been facing several challenges, including disappointment expressed about its range to thousands of the pickup vehicles being recalled due to faulty pedals.
Nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks were recalled in April over a problem with the vehicle’s accelerator pedal, documents by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed.
Due to the defect, accelerator pedals in these cars could dislodge and get trapped, with the likelihood of causing the vehicle to speed up unintentionally and “increase the risk of a collision”, NHTSA said.
Tesla has briefly halted Cybertruck deliveries due to a problem with the electric vehicle’s windshield wiper motor.
This has led to Tesla accumulating its Cybertrucks before delivery at many locations around the US.
Industry experts have also pointed out that the company may have made too many of its vehicles as the number of unsold Tesla cars sitting in parking lots across the US is ballooning.
Reports began emerging in April that unsold Tesla cars, including the company’s Model Y, Model 3, and Cybertrucks are filling up parking lots in several parts of the US.
Videos shared on social media also show people being dumbfounded about finding parking lots filed with Cybertrucks in many parts of the country.
Even satellite images of Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory taken several months apart show some parking lots around the factory going from partially to full.
Satellite images of lots likely leased by the company outside some malls in the US show them filling up with unsold cars.
In the latest incident, it is unclear for how long Tesla leased the lot in Fort Lauderdale, or whether the EV company would continue to use it after the vandalism.
