One Tesla Model S in Spokane recently caught fire and burned to the ground. At first, authorities dismissed the incident as either the battery exploding or spontaneous combustion, but after reviewing the Sentry Cam footage, they were able to see that it was an arsonist who set the car ablaze. They are now searching for the individual with an unclear motive.
The owner of the Tesla Model S, J.R. Harriston, was asleep when the incident occurred at around 12:40 am. He initially didn’t know what caused the fire until he reviewed the footage from the Sentry Camera feature in his car, which records movements around the vehicle. However, the authorities didn’t believe that an arsonist was to blame and didn’t take immediate action. It was only after Harriston shared the footage that he was able to convince them that it wasn’t a case of the battery exploding or spontaneous combustion.
“The lieutenant or sheriff, whoever they have to do a report, take pictures, etc., he was trying to dismiss the thing like, the battery exploding on itself or like it spontaneously combusting,” Harriston explained. “And I was like, bro, there’s no way that that doesn’t happen. I showed him the video and he’s like, ‘Oh, okay, it’s arson, for sure.’ And then, you know, they became a lot more helpful,” he said to KREM2 News.
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That somewhat negative attitude toward electric cars seems like a consistent one for some Spokane police. During testing of a Model Y for potential fleet use last year, officers complained about a lack of legroom and the inability to use the whole infotainment screen in conjunction with a laptop. For now, the big concern is finding out who this person is and why they decided to torch a seemingly random Tesla.
“Hopefully, we can at least find the guy, right?,” Harriston said. “Because if there’s a guy walking around, just setting stuff on fire, like, Come on, man, that’s not he needs to be taken off the street sooner than later. Especially because I have friends in that area.”