While Tesla was in the midst of delivering its highly anticipated Cybertruck to its first customers, a contrasting and unsettling narrative was unfolding quietly behind the scenes. On Wednesday, November 29, in Austin, Texas, authorities arrested a 28-year-old resident of Orlando, Florida, who now faces charges related to making terrorist threats. The individual had allegedly issued threats to orchestrate a mass casualty event at Tesla’s Cybertruck delivery event, which was scheduled for the following day.
Overeem was apprehended upon his arrival in Travis County. Authorities initiated an investigation into the man after Tesla contacted them on November 10, expressing concerns about a suspicious group chat on Instagram. Within this chat, a user with the handle ‘ufotnoitalumis’ had made threats to harm individuals attending the event.
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Instagram was served with a subpoena, and according to an arrest affidavit, the account was linked to Overeem, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. The chat included messages where the writer indicated plans to attack the Tesla event, with statements suggesting that it was incumbent upon others in the chat ‘to stop me.’
“I plan on killing people,” a message read, “and I would like you to do something about it so I don’t have to. I wanna die.” The writer also claimed that their “thoughts haven’t been free for over a year,” because of all the electronics around them.
The messages also included comments like “I sure am crazy though,” and “If I’m saying I’m gonna kill people then you should take this seriously.” It is not clear who else was involved in the chat.
After the account was connected to Overeem, investigators learned that he drove a black 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe. A traffic camera caught his truck driving in Southwest Austin at 11:13 a.m. on Tuesday, November 28. He was booked into jail the following day, with bail set at $300,000.
Authorities did not clarify whether he had any weapons with him. Nonetheless, Overeem could face a maximum of 20 years in prison if found guilty of terroristic threats, which constitutes a third-degree felony.
