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Tesla Sentry Cam Video Reveals Model S Fire Was Arson, Not Battery-Related

When police first saw the burned-down Model S, they said EVs “tend to” catch on fire.

The burned-down Tesla Model S

Iulian Dnistran Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Apr 28, 2023 at 4:52am ET

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A Tesla Model S owner had a very unpleasant experience after visiting a friend in Spokane, Washington.

One night during his visit, JR Harriston’s electric sedan caught fire and was pretty much a write-off. But the story doesn’t end here because after going to the police trying to solve the mystery of how the fire started, he got the undocumented response that it was probably a battery-related fire.

The Spokane Police Department told him that EVs “tend to” catch on fire, to which he voiced his disagreement, but officers assigned to the case maintained their position. However, that all changed when Harriston was able to retrieve the videos from Tesla’s Sentry Cam, which records video of what’s happening around the car.

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And to everybody’s surprise, an unidentified man was caught on video pouring gasoline on the parked Model S and then lighting it on fire, which is shocking, to say the least.

As expected, the video evidence convinced the police that it was arson rather than battery-related and it is now looking for the person responsible.

The Tesla Model S owner says he doesn’t even live in Spokane and that there was no clear reason for someone to want to light his car on fire. But this wouldn’t be the first time an angry EV critic would do such a thing out of pure spite, with many cases in the past showing that people sometimes do stupid things to prove a point.

Another theory is that it could simply be a random act of vandalism, and an expensive one at that, with the Tesla Model S now selling for over $87,000 in the United States.

What do you think?

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But until the police catch the bad guy, we won’t know for sure what was the motive. What we do know, however, is that Tesla’s cameras have proved to be very useful tools for catching vandals and ill-intentioned drivers, and it’s nice to see that other brands such as Rivian are offering similar features.

As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so after watching the video embedded at the top of the page, scroll down to the comments section and give us your thoughts.

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Source: KREM 2 News via Electrek

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