Model 3’s TeslaCam Helps Police Nab Suspect In Less Than 24 Hours
Police in Fairfield, California, were quick to credit the built-in camera system in the Tesla Model 3 with helping them identify a suspect in a smash and grab theft from a Tesla Model 3 this week.
The victim left his laptop in the passenger side of the vehicle, which proved to be more than the would-be thieves could pass up. They cased the vehicle for nearly 2 minutes before one of the men smashed the passenger side window around 6:30 in the afternoon, grabbed the laptop, and took off. Unfortunately for them, the TeslaCam system was triggered by the Tesla Model 3’s Sentry security system and caught clear images of the license plate of the vehicle and both their faces. The crime was also recorded, making for a nice pretty package for police to use in their investigation.
Tesla Model 3. Image credit: Zach Shahan | CleanTechnica
Less than 24 hours later, Fairfield Police had identified one of the suspects and had a warrant out for his arrest. That will come as a relief to the owner, Steve Widick, who had received an alert that Sentry Mode had been activated while he was in line to order food. Seconds later, another alert notified him that the alarm had been triggered, at which point he left the line to go see what had happened.
“I was standing in line, and I got the notification on my phone that Sentry Mode had been activated, and then right after that, I got that the alarm had been activated,” he told KCRA. “So, I left the line, came out and looked, and the window was smashed and my laptop was gone.”
The best defense against crime is avoidance, but if it happens, it’s a comfort to have video evidence for the police and insurance companies. The worry is that as more and more thieves learn about the onboard camera system recording from just 3 of the integrated cameras, they will start working around them in the blind spots. How long will it take Tesla to include more cameras in Sentry Mode’s footage? Time will tell.
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