What Motivates Someone To Key A Tesla?

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What motivates people to key a Tesla? Why all the hate?

Police in Broomfield, Colorado, have identified a woman who was caught by Sentry Mode keying a Tesla Model 3, according to CBS Denver. You may have seen the video on Twitter and Facebook of the woman, who just walked up and keyed the vehicle.

Tesla’s Sentry Mode has not only helped Tesla owners feel more secure, but has empowered them with a valuable tool to fight back against helplessness after a crime in which the criminal is not seen. It has also revealed a horrifying trend of people seemingly filled with rage and hate toward a stranger releasing this hate by attacking their victims’ cars.

One of our Denver #Tesla Club members got keyed. Please help identify this woman! https://t.co/vTfsPclTDH

— @spotted_model (@spotted_model) September 30, 2019

For those who may not be familiar with Sentry Mode, it’s a service by Tesla that uses 8 built-in cameras that watch over your car when you leave it parked. The car uses all those cameras to record its surroundings when it senses someone or something come near it.

That leads us to the case of a father who had parked his Tesla at a school parking lot and came back to find it damaged with deep scratches. Alan Tweedie told CBS Denver, “You can feel down to bare metal and you can see it’s scratched all the way completely through the paint.” He noticed the scratches when he got home. Upon looking at the Sentry Mode videos, he found the woman who had just walked around to the front of his car with the key at her hip like she was trying to conceal what she was doing.

Tweedie told CBS that he didn’t recognize the woman, and since the damages are more than $2,000, charges have been pressed against the woman, who has been identified by police. When Tweedie filed the police report, he also shared a post on Facebook about what had happened to him.

We’ve reported previously on Tesla owners having their cars keyed, which raises the question: Why key a Tesla? To be even more specific, why would someone key a Tesla when they didn’t even know or interact with the owner?

Why Do People Act Out In Hatred At Random Strangers?

What would motivate someone to walk up to a car that they do not own and damage it? What is going on inside their minds that they feel the need to key someone else’s car, causing that person financial damages as well as emotional ones?

What could be so bad in that person’s life that made them feel like keying a stranger’s car would make them temporarily feel better about themselves? I may be able to shed some light on a reason. There is this mentality that some people have that is fueled by hurt and envy and makes some people hate their fellow human beings because of sad situations that may have happened in their own personal lives. My mother, who was awesome, struggled with this. No, she didn’t act out in hate — she taught to love — but still, she had the mentality.

This mentality states that you are poor and rich people owe you because they have what you don’t. These thoughts are fueled by a kind of greed that is presented in such a way, for example, that if you don’t own an iPhone or the hottest, latest thing, then there must be something wrong with you. Many people fall victim to this and it creates envy mixed with self-hatred. Hatred for yourself because you are not “good enough” to be among the privileged few who own the hottest car, have a nice house, or go to exotic places.

You may think I’m out of touch here — after all, I’m writing about Tesla daily from the comfort of my apartment. My mother was homeless a lot during my childhood. Her reasoning for everything was, “I can’t afford it.” Many times we had to go without food. Neighbors and churches would help when food stamps ran out. I was able to break out of that mentality, and if I can, so can anyone else struggling with it.

The Choice Is Yours

What many people don’t realize is that we can choose to change our mentalities. We can break the mental bonds of poverty simply by believing in ourselves and knowing we deserve to be happy. But happiness isn’t a destination. It’s a state of being. You have to choose to be happy. You can’t go there, you have to be there. Until you realize this, you will never be happy — until you choose to be happy.

Happiness isn’t owning a Tesla. It isn’t having a house or an iPhone. It’s a state of mind. So before you go and key a Tesla or do something that will land you in jail if you get caught, ask yourself this: What benefit am I getting from harming a total stranger who has done nothing to me? When you harm someone else, you harm yourself. Stop hating yourself and setting yourself up to fail. Instead, start loving yourself and choose to be happy right now where you are. Be grateful that you’re alive. Don’t focus on what you don’t have, give thanks for what you do have.