A man in Adelaide has been caught on camera apparently ripping out the charging cable as a Tesla car was being charged in the city’s Hindmarsh Square.
Tesla’s in-built security system, known as Sentry Mode, was activated when the alleged act of vandalism was committed.
A video on Youtube shows the person approaching the vehicle, which was charging at the time, and then rips out the cable with what appears to be deliberate and considerable force.
The end of the video (shown in image above) shows the extent of the damage to the cable, which is now unable to be used to charge the car.
“Charging cable physically removed from station….causing damage to charging cable worth over $300 worth,” said Dunken Bliths, who shared the video on Youtube.
It’s definitely not the first time Sentry Mode has caught offenders on tape.
As The Driven reported in September 2019, an alleged Sydney car thief was captured on camera breaking into a vehicle next to a Tesla car parked in a busy city parking lot.
In February 2020, The Driven reported a shocking act of vandalism that saw a Tesla vehicle’s window screen smashed in Albury, also caught on camera by Sentry Mode.
Another episode in November 2020 saw footage of a potential thief caught on camera by a Tesla owner’s car in Canberra.
Sentry mode can only be used to share the footage to police, in the hope of identifying and prosecuting a perpetrator, if there is a correctly formatted USB stick installed in the vehicle.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.