Minnesota police chief calls woman who vandalized Tesla a ‘victim’ due to ‘rhetoric that is being spewed’

Hodges said that days after police requested the public’s help in identifying a woman who vandalized a Tesla, a woman turned herself in to police.

"They’ve been fully cooperative," Hodges said. "The victim in this case just wanted their car fixed, and they just wanted the suspect to pay for that. Based on the totality of the circumstances here and along with our core value of being compassionate, this is the best outcome for everybody involved in this case."

Per the Minnesota Star Tribune, a 27-year-old woman from Bloomington walked past a new Tesla SUV on March 26 that was parked outside Cub Foods. She scraped it with a key, causing $3,200 in damages. Hodges said that the owner of the car "has already been made whole in terms of being paid."

Hodges said that the woman who caused the damage was a "victim" too. "You probably have never heard me utter these words. The suspect in this case may have been a victim, and I mean victim in terms of the rhetoric that is being spewed out here by some of those in leadership. We need our leaders to start leading and stop feeding this rhetoric."

He urged the public to "start getting along," saying, "people should be able to drive whatever car they want without fear of going into a store and someone scratching their car, or people yelling at them because of the car that they choose to drive. It’s time for all of us, you know, just start getting along and knock this stuff off."

He vowed that those who "damage these cars or target people" would be arrested and prosecuted "to the fullest extent that we’re able to." He said that in this case, the victim of the vandalism just wanted to be paid for the damages.

"The suspect in this case, we’re going to hold those charges over their head, just to ensure that they don’t do anything similar to this in the near future."