CHESTERFIELD, Mo. – Tesla vehicles are being vandalized across the country.
Now, a Ballwin man is facing a felony property charge after police say he was caught on camera keying a Tesla. Town and Country police arrested Matthew Reynolds in connection with the vandalism.
“So you can see the scratch; it kind of starts right here, kind of by the camera and it goes all the way across the door,” said Jyoti, the owner of the Tesla.
She said the scratch that stretches across the entire length of her car is a daily reminder of what she thought was a normal trip to the grocery store at the Woods Mill Plaza.
“I got out there and did my shopping and came back in and I noticed the scratch right away,” Jyoti said.
Looking through the video from the car’s front and side cameras, she found the exact moment a man targeted her car.
“You see him walking all the way across so he’s walked across many, many cars he could have keyed, but he walked across the parking lot to find my car and key my car,” she said.
From the side camera, you can see him drag the key along her car.
“It’s all the way across, right from the front across both doors and all the way to the trunk. It is definitely down to the metal; you can see that so they’ll have to do pretty much the whole side of the body,” Jyoti said.
Over the last five years of owning her Tesla, she’s had accidental dings and dents from other drivers but said this is different.
“He intentionally picked out my car and scratched it and then just walked away. No thought about who this is, you know I have things in my life going on that he doesn’t know about but now this is another thing that I have to deal with,” she said.
Town and Country police said they don’t know the motive behind it, but Jyoti believes it is part of a national issue.
She said it is frustrating to see people targeting Tesla owners.
“I feel sad that there is people out there that are okay doing this to other people. I’ve had things happen in my life and currently I’m out of a job looking for a job myself,” Jyoti said.