Photo: Guido ten Brink / SB-Medien
A man managed to walk inside a Testal rental company in a Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and drive away with a Model 3 he had not paid for. All it took was a smartphone app and some technical skills.
The man was actually a regular at the Tesla rental company Trevls, ran by John Marino. This was actually the first clue that led to pinpointing him as the culprit, Marino tells Fox9 in an interview last week.
The second clue was the fact that the man used to brag a lot, even to Marino, about his know-how on Tesla and how easy it is to break and steal one of these cars because of how interconnected they are. The smoking gun was CCTV footage of him walking into Trevls and not leaving the same way he came in.
“We suspected it was him because he used to brag a lot about how much he knew about the car and its security, and this was somebody who had the wherewithal to make this happen,” Marino says.
The man tricked the Tesla app into recognizing him as the owner of the Model 3, which unlocked and started the car. He then disabled GPS tracking on the vehicle, thinking it would be enough to make the cops lose his trail.
It wasn’t, as you probably guessed. Every time the man stopped to recharge the car, it showed up over at Tesla, so they were able to track his route. The man was arrested 3 days after he stole the car, en route to Texas, where he probably had a buyer ready.
“Tesla is not the car to steal,” computer forensics specialist Mark Lanterman says for the same media outlet. “The amount of data Tesla collects is actually kind of creepy."
“What it sounds like this person may have done is convince Tesla to take the VIN number of that vehicle and add it to his Tesla account,” Lanterman explains. “You can do that with a phone call. By doing that, you can now control the Tesla from an app on your phone.”
Of course, controlling the Tesla and getting away with stealing one are two different kind of fish, as this man eventually found out.
The second clue was the fact that the man used to brag a lot, even to Marino, about his know-how on Tesla and how easy it is to break and steal one of these cars because of how interconnected they are. The smoking gun was CCTV footage of him walking into Trevls and not leaving the same way he came in.
“We suspected it was him because he used to brag a lot about how much he knew about the car and its security, and this was somebody who had the wherewithal to make this happen,” Marino says.
The man tricked the Tesla app into recognizing him as the owner of the Model 3, which unlocked and started the car. He then disabled GPS tracking on the vehicle, thinking it would be enough to make the cops lose his trail.
It wasn’t, as you probably guessed. Every time the man stopped to recharge the car, it showed up over at Tesla, so they were able to track his route. The man was arrested 3 days after he stole the car, en route to Texas, where he probably had a buyer ready.
“Tesla is not the car to steal,” computer forensics specialist Mark Lanterman says for the same media outlet. “The amount of data Tesla collects is actually kind of creepy."
“What it sounds like this person may have done is convince Tesla to take the VIN number of that vehicle and add it to his Tesla account,” Lanterman explains. “You can do that with a phone call. By doing that, you can now control the Tesla from an app on your phone.”
Of course, controlling the Tesla and getting away with stealing one are two different kind of fish, as this man eventually found out.
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