A different Tesla is being charged.
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- Two men accused of stealing $8,000 worth of merchandise used a Tesla as their getaway vehicle.
- But they stopped 15 minutes down the road to charge it, where the police caught them.
- A photo shared by police on social media shows the Tesla fitted with a gaming system.
Two suspects accused of stealing more than $8,000 worth of merchandise in Buford, Georgia were caught 15 minutes down the road after stopping their Tesla getaway vehicle to charge.
Gwinnett County Police said insider The suspects were arrested about 10 miles away while attempting to charge the car near the Gas South Arena site on February 19.
Police shared details of the theft on social media on Sunday with images of a car full of gaming systems and boxes of electric toothbrushes. In a statement to Insider, a police spokesperson said the thieves were on the run from the Sam’s Club store.
Witnesses responding to a 911 call told police that the pair had fled in an electric vehicle – their description was then disseminated to nearby officers.
The accused were found at a distance of about 15 minutes.
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It is not clear whether the shopkeepers had the car or it was stolen earlier.
On a full battery, current Tesla models can travel more than 300 miles, according to the company’s website.
This isn’t the first time criminals have been thwarted by Tesla batteries. In 2019, a woman in Arizona tried to steal a Model S, but her charge ran out while she was driving.
The following year, a 21-year-old attempted to carjack a Model 3 in California, but when the driver got out he locked the would-be thief inside the vehicle remotely using his iPhone.
In 2014, The Verge reported that the first person to die in a Tesla had stolen the vehicle from a service center before crashing in a nearly 100 mph police chase.