[imagesource: YouTube / Alex Choi]
I am not sure what is wilder: making your rented Tesla fly over a hill like it is no big deal or all the mad rumours doing the rounds about the stunt.
The story begins with someone renting a Tesla Model S, only to fling it over a hill where it becomes airborne for a few minutes as people film on.
The Tesla then crash-landed into a couple of bins and another person’s car at the bottom of the road.
The Tesla was abandoned at the scene on Baxter Street in Los Angeles and the culprit has not been found yet.
Check it out:
Yall ever seen a Tesla fly? pic.twitter.com/nT6XThgDt3
— Chazzy (@chazzydawgg) March 20, 2022
Angle two:
My boy had a Tesla rally last night. I was supposed to co-host. Glad I didn’t go. I’m old and washed now. These kids today are wild pic.twitter.com/JJWhrP5NO5
— BEN BALLER™ (@BENBALLER) March 20, 2022
Angle three:
Everyone that watched the tesla jump was like:
pic.twitter.com/b5Ke0bGcg6
— Chazzy (@chazzydawgg) March 20, 2022
Police are treating the incident as a hit-and-run and are offering a monetary award for any information on who the driver might be, per NewsAU:
A statement by the LAPD said it offered a $1000 reward for information leading to the offender’s “identification, apprehension, and conviction or resolution through a civil compromise”.
Detective Juan Campos, who’s with LAPD’s Central Traffic Division said, “Luckily, nobody got killed. … One wrong move and it would’ve gone to the left or right and we would’ve had a different story”.
YouTuber Alex Choi posted a video about a Tesla meetup on the night of the jump, adding another disappointing layer to the story:
Choi says in the video that the driver found a stray cat at the meetup, bought cat food for it at the Target nearby, put it in the car… and then did the jump with the cat inside.
(Jordan Hook said his neighbors saw the cat briefly, before the people grabbed it and fled in the getaway Tesla.)
Jordan Hook has been left as a sort of victim after the flying Tesla ploughed into his Subaru Forester truck – “his life savings”:
“The cringeworthy thing that gets your blood boiling isn’t necessarily the car jumping and crashing,” he said.
“It’s the attitude of these guys and the fact that they’re so cocky about it. Then they just get up and leave after it’s done.”
His car’s front tyres, steering column, and suspension were all damaged by the impact, which is made even more lamentable as Hook had just spent $5 000 on repairing the engine.
VICE chronicled how this situation has taken Hook from being a mere “local musician in an Americana band working part-time as a substitute teacher, to the middle of YouTube influencer drama involving Tesla culture, internet witch-hunting, and a GoFundMe campaign”.
The police apparently couldn’t help Hook, who described the situation as “backwards”, as there was no driver present to take responsibility.
So his neighbours set up a GoFundMe campaign to help him fix the damage.
Meanwhile, as the videos spread and police were taking the matter more seriously, a social media influencer by the name of DurteDom has been leaning into the countless police tips accusing him of being the driver.
He’s been pretty brazen about it all over social media:
Watch on TikTok
Although, there are many who reckon DurteDom is just doing it for the views.
What a sad state of affairs.
