A pair of Teslas caught fireplace and had been destroyed in San Francisco over the weekend simply weeks after a self-driving electric vehicle was torched in a close-by neighborhood, in line with authorities.
Over a 30-minute interval early Saturday morning, the San Francisco Hearth Division responded to 2 separate car fires in shut proximity, on Bonifacio Avenue close to Mabini Avenue and Shipley Avenue between 4th and fifth streets, officers mentioned.
The division extinguished the fires and commenced investigating at the very least one as a suspected arson.
Video obtained by CBS News Bay Area confirmed the origins of the second fireplace: an individual setting the white Tesla Mannequin Y ablaze round 12:45 a.m. The unidentified particular person ignited a fireplace in one of many wheel wells, inflicting your entire car to go up in flames inside minutes, the video exhibits.
Van Vuong advised the native TV station that he was on his option to go play tennis Saturday morning when he noticed the burned car — and didn’t understand it was his.
“We simply form of walked by it after which I assumed, ‘Shoot, the place’s my automobile?’” he mentioned. “Then I assumed, ‘No! That may’t be my automobile!’”
That torching got here half an hour after one other Tesla caught fireplace on Bonifacio Avenue only a block away, in line with the fireplace division. The fireplace division and police division didn’t say if the primary Tesla was additionally set on fireplace, although they had been investigating the fires collectively.
No arrests have been made within the Tesla burnings.
The incidents occurred simply over a mile from the place vandals torched and destroyed a self-driving Waymo electrical car throughout Lunar New 12 months celebrations in Chinatown earlier this month.
Videos posted on social media confirmed one particular person use a skateboard to crush the automobile’s home windows as its rooftop sensors continued to show.
Crime in San Francisco has been the goal of criticism by politicians and others, together with Tesla founder Elon Musk who has publicly known as town the place his firm, X, is predicated “post-apocalyptic” and mentioned that you possibly can “actually movie a ‘Strolling Lifeless’ episode in downtown SF.”
