Tesla camera catches man red-handed in 'awful' act

A man has been caught brazenly "vandalising" a Tesla after its in-built cameras started recording his actions while it was parked outside his home last week.

The owner of the car explained she had parked on a residential street in Lindfield, in Sydney's west, so she only had a short talk to the train station before hitching a ride to work. However, upon her return, she found both her back number plate and left wing mirror had been damaged. Turning to the EV's built-in cameras for help and reviewing the footage, she discovered what happened.

"This is the reason that I keep Sentry Mode on at all times!" she said online, referring to the EVs ability to detect and record motion near it. "Just a normal day street parking close to the train station. One of the house owners did this."

In the footage a man holding a leaf blower can be seen checking his surroundings before approaching the car and damaging the number plate and wing mirror, before targeting the two areas of the car again later in the evening, bending the number place significantly.

The car owner claims she has reported it to police. Yahoo News reached out to NSW Police who declined comment.

Aussies outraged by 'sick' act

After posting the videos online many responded with disgust, calling it "outright" vandalism and questioning why someone would choose to do such a thing, urging the Tesla owner to "call the police" and push for updates.

"What is wrong with people? This is just awful behaviour," one said, while others called it "sick" and the vandal a "grub".

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Tesla cameras continue to catch vandalism

This isn't the first time Tesla motion detector cameras have come in handy for owners who have found their cars damaged, with incidences of vandalism occurring in several states.

Last November a married couple were caught keying several cars at Brisbane's Brookside Shopping Centre and were later charged, while an elderly man was caught in March keying a car in Melbourne.

In 2020 another Tesla owner returned to his car which was parked in Penrith Shopping Centre in Sydney's west to find scratch marks on it. After looking at the footage recorded from the car's in-built cameras he found a woman had keyed his car while he had been shopping.

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