Tesla and Polestar vehicles inMt Eden, Freemans Bay, Grey Lynn, and Ponsonby were targeted by a man, who was in some cases captured on CCTV cameras performing the acts.
A Freemans Bay Tesla owner believed the man he captured spray-painting his car (left) was the same man captured spray-painting a Polestar on the same night in Mt Eden (right).
A police spokesperson this afternoon confirmed a 52-year-old man was in custody in relation to the wilful damage reports.
“Charges are being considered,” police said.
On Monday, the Herald reported that a Tesla in Ponsonby and a Polestar in Mt Eden had their number plates, brake lights, and emblems spray-painted. The alleged Jandal-wearing offender was captured on CCTV footage casually emerging from the darkness with a can of spray paint in one hand.
The clothing the man is wearing matched the earlier footage, leading owners to believe they have been targeted by the same person.
A Freemans Bay resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said when he tried to leave for work at 5.30am, he discovered his car vandalised with pink paint.
Photos of the car show a similar spray-paint pattern as other vehicles targeted, with a scribble over the driver’s side window, paint over the headlights, number plates, wing mirrors, and a long line down the side.
An image of a Tesla that was vandalised with spray paint while parked on Ponsonby Rd was shared to social media yesterday morning.
The resident said his car had to be towed and was now getting repaired.
A Grey Lynn resident, who also wished to remain anonymous out of fear that the vandal would return, said their Polestar was also spray-painted on Sunday night. They said their car was also undriveable and had to be towed.
A photo of a car which had also been targeted in nearby Ponsonby was posted on social media on Monday, showing a white Tesla covered in pink paint on Ponsonby Rd.
Sebastian Jonsson told the Herald he woke on Monday morning to find spray paint all over his Polestar, which was parked in the driveway of his Mt Eden home.
He said the family car had been left undriveable due to the blue paint over its tail-lights and number plates.
The man was “very calm” while he spray-painted the car, he said.
Molotov cocktails thrown at US Tesla dealership amid political tension
Court documents stated that over the course of 13 days starting on January 29, Lucy Grace Nelson made repeated trips to the Tesla car lot in Loveland, Colorado.
She once spray-painted “Nazi” in black under the dealership’s entrance sign. Another time, she came with four Smirnoff Ice bottles filled with petrol, flung them at electric vehicles parked around the dealership and watched as they burned.
She also allegedly used red spray paint to scribble a message on the car dealership’s entrance doors: “F*** Musk”. Nelson’s lawyer declined to comment on the case.
Vandals in Maryland also spray-painted “No Musk” onto a Tesla building, alongside a swastika-like symbol.
In February, a man brandishing an AR-style semiautomatic weapon fired at a Tesla storefront in Salem, Oregon.
Just a few weeks earlier, investigators say, the same man attacked the same dealership by throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla vehicles and through the store window. He caused an estimated US$500,000 in damages, according to court documents.
