A 52-year-old man has been arrested after multiple electric vehicles in Auckland were vandalised with spray paint.
Six reports of wilful damage to vehicles targeted by a spray-paint pest had been received since March 9, police said.
Tesla and Polestar vehicles in Mt Eden, Freemans Bay, Grey Lynn, and Ponsonby were targeted by a man, who was in some cases captured on CCTV cameras performing the acts.
A police spokesperson this afternoon confirmed a 52-year-old man was in custody in relation to the wilful damage reports.
“Charges are being considered,” police said.
On Monday, the Herald reported that a Tesla in Ponsonby and a Polestar in Mt Eden had their number plates, brake lights, and emblems spray-painted. The alleged Jandal-wearing offender was captured on CCTV footage casually emerging from the darkness with a can of spray paint in one hand.
Three further victims came forward to the Herald on Tuesday, reporting similar attacks that had left their vehicles so badly damaged they could not be driven.
One of the latest victims to have his vehicle defaced supplied a video to the Herald showing a man using spray paint to render the car undriveable.
The clothing the man is wearing matched the earlier footage, leading owners to believe they have been targeted by the same person.
A Freemans Bay resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said when he tried to leave for work at 5.30am, he discovered his car vandalised with pink paint.
Photos of the car show a similar spray-paint pattern as other vehicles targeted, with a scribble over the driver’s side window, paint over the headlights, number plates, wing mirrors, and a long line down the side.
The resident said his car had to be towed and was now getting repaired.
A Grey Lynn resident, who also wished to remain anonymous out of fear that the vandal would return, said their Polestar was also spray-painted on Sunday night. They said their car was also undriveable and had to be towed.
A photo of a car which had also been targeted in nearby Ponsonby was posted on social media on Monday, showing a white Tesla covered in pink paint on Ponsonby Rd.
Sebastian Jonsson told the Herald he woke on Monday morning to find spray paint all over his Polestar, which was parked in the driveway of his Mt Eden home.
He said the family car had been left undriveable due to the blue paint over its tail-lights and number plates.
The man was “very calm” while he spray-painted the car, he said.
The incidents come after a woman allegedly lobbed Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership in Colorado, the US.
Court documents stated that over the course of 13 days starting on January 29, Lucy Grace Nelson made repeated trips to the Tesla car lot in Loveland, Colorado.
She once spray-painted “Nazi” in black under the dealership’s entrance sign. Another time, she came with four Smirnoff Ice bottles filled with petrol, flung them at electric vehicles parked around the dealership and watched as they burned.
She also allegedly used red spray paint to scribble a message on the car dealership’s entrance doors: “F*** Musk”. Nelson’s lawyer declined to comment on the case.
Vandals in Maryland also spray-painted “No Musk” onto a Tesla building, alongside a swastika-like symbol.
In February, a man brandishing an AR-style semiautomatic weapon fired at a Tesla storefront in Salem, Oregon.
Just a few weeks earlier, investigators say, the same man attacked the same dealership by throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla vehicles and through the store window. He caused an estimated US$500,000 in damages, according to court documents.
- Additional reporting by Washington Post.
Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.
Almost 40,000 people became citizens last year, a 67% increase in Pacific Islanders.