More than 1.7 million packages go missing in America every day, whether they get lost in transit or are swiped from your stoop while you’re out and about. Not wanting to add to that stat, a Tesla Cybertruck driver chased after a porch pirate who allegedly swiped one of their packages, forcing them off the road and into a tree.
The vigilante was driving a wrapped green Cybertruck that they had rented for the weekend through Turo, reports Futurism. While heading home, they saw a person swipe a package from their porch and dive into their car. As the package thief tried to get away, the Cybertruck driver sped after them and used the rented EV to ram them into a tree, stopping them in their tracks:
Footage of the bizarre event, shared by the Cybertruck’s owner Stefen Phelps on Facebook, shows the brutalist pickup accelerating after spotting an individual running to their car with what appears to be a package in their hands.
Seconds later, the Cybertruck catches up with the black sedan of the accused porch pirate, hindering it from following a left turn in the road and forcing it to plow into a nearby tree. The Cybertruck then crashes into the back of the porch pirate’s vehicle — or makes a “sandwich with the burglar’s car and a tree,” as Phelps put it.
A separate angle recorded by what appears to be Cybertruck renter’s smart doorbell shows the accused thief running to their car. Seconds later, the green Cybertruck can be seen whooshing by in the distance. The clip ends with an ominous crunching sound as the black car plows into the tree.
In a Facebook post on the Tesla CyberTruck group, the truck’s owner Stefen Phelps made light of the situation. They posted a picture of the damaged front end of their truck and added that they were “about to find out how good TURO’s insurance is.”
In follow up comments on the post, Phelps added that they had charged the driver $800 to rent the truck from Friday to Monday. At the time of the rental, the driver’s neighborhood had reportedly experienced a spate of burglaries in the week prior to the incident, added Inside EVs:
This may have sparked a momentary spurt of vigilante justice from the renter, which, combined with the nearly 7,000-pound truck, gave some courage to subdue the presumed porch pirate.
Reactions have been mixed. Some folks on the forums cheered on the renters for dishing out some instant karma, while others sympathized with the owner. Many speculated that the person driving the Cybertruck could be in for a bit of legal trouble, whether it be criminal for their use of the truck as a weapon, or civil through the insurance company, alleged thief, or one of the property owners affected by the incident. Others theorized that the entire thing was staged for a viral video.
Now the only question that remains is what will be the ramifications for this questionable act? Should the insurance cover an intentional crash, or should the driver of the truck face charges for acting in such a dangerous manner? It sure seems like an extreme reaction to losing a package. If they’re found to have crashed on purpose, the driver could face criminal charges or even a civil suit if the driver they hit decides to sue.
