Local News
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Vandals targeted row after row of Tesla Cybertrucks stored in a nondescript Fort Lauderdale parking lot in an apparent vendetta against the company’s controversial CEO, Elon Musk.
The message spray-painted onto the vehicles? “F— Elon.”
“It was just one row and then it was a second row, and then a third row and a fourth row,” Adam Docktor, who works nearby, said.
Tesla apparently leases the parking lot to store the new vehicles.
“I thought Elon Musk put them on sale,” Hoss Alavi, who works nearby, said. “I was trying to buy one.”
The lot is “in the back of projects where no security, no gates, nothing,” TikToker AJ Cook said.
Yasser Rabello noticed the spray-painted vehicles just after 4 a.m. Friday and recorded a video, posting it online.
“Vandalism is not acceptable,” Rabello said. “It is illegal.”
Fort Lauderdale police say the vandals hit a total of 34 vehicles — all with the same four-letter word, followed by Musk’s name.
By Friday afternoon, the graffiti had been wiped off.
Social media influencers and passersby stopped to snap photos.
“I just heard about it and I came out here to see if it was true and I see all of these Teslas,” TikToker Chase Thomas said.
Fort Lauderdale police are now investigating the case.
People said Friday that the vehicles have been on the lot for about three days. It’s not clear how long Tesla plans to use the lot.
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About the Author
Cody Weddle
Cody Weddle joined Local 10 News as a full-time reporter in South Florida in August of 2022. Before that, Cody worked regularly with Local 10 since January of 2017 as a foreign correspondent in Venezuela and Colombia.