By Rachael Perry
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VERO BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — A Vero Beach couple is worried that a man’s behavior is escalating after capturing him twice on video targeting their vehicle.
Clarence and his wife live in Vero Beach and drive a Tesla. Clarence said his wife works at the local hospital where she parks the vehicle. Roughly a month ago, the vehicle’s camera system caught a man spitting on the driver’s side window.
“The car gives you alerts when anybody’s around the car or somebody does something to the car and so, we looked at the alert, and it didn’t look like anything. My wife drove home, and when we looked at the car, it was like, oh my goodness. You can see the driver’s side window was covered with saliva,” Clarence said.
Clarence said while it was gross, they didn’t think much of it and didn’t recognize the man. However, they reported it to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office to be safe.
Everything seemed fine for the next few weeks until Tesla’s cameras caught the same man on video.
“Then, about a month later, he comes back, and the video shows him walking up to the car surreptitiously and hides a little blade or something and scratches some symbol into the back of the car and walks off,” Clarence told WPBF.
The man can be seen walking his black and white dog before approaching the Tesla.
“He approaches the car, looks around, and gets even closer, leans onto the car, and you can see in the lower right-hand corner of him actually scratching the symbol or whatever. He’s just scratching into the body of the car,” Clarence said.
The couple reported the incident to the IRCSO, which began investigating. The couple now fears the man’s behavior is escalating and worries about what he’ll do next.
“When somebody comes back, it gives you an even heightened level of concern for escalation because we don’t know what, we don’t know what drives somebody to do that,” he said.
While the man’s motives are unclear, several cases have been reported nationwide involving damage to Tesla’s dealerships and charging stations. Protestors have set up near showrooms criticizing Elon Musk, the company’s CEO. Musk was chosen as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal government’s workforce and shrink federal agencies.
In late March, the FBI announced a task force intended to “crack down on violent Tesla attacks.” The Justice Department also announced it will crack down on the rising number of attacks against Tesla, including charging the individuals accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla properties.
Clarence said he isn’t sure if this case is politically motivated, but he just wants the man to be stopped before he can do anything else.
“With it occurring at the same place, kind of same place type thing, that makes it a higher priority to us and a higher concern for safety. We hope that the guy is identified, and that the sheriff’s office talks to him, and takes appropriate action, so that this can come to a stop,” he said.
The IRCSO put out a release this week asking for the public’s help identifying the man seen in the video footage.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the deputy assigned to the case at 772-978-6240 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273-8477.
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