A couple of years ago, coppers found a burned-out Tesla Model X smoldering on a frozen lake just outside Burlington, Vermont, and as the Internet is wont to do, people took it up as some sort of harbinger.
Was it another in a series of stories about the nightmarish inevitability of electric vehicles bursting into flames? A warning sign of things to come of a future where wealthy, environmentally conscious Americans would be consumed by fire for their trouble?
According to the local fire department, the owner just happened to be driving his Tesla out to enjoy a few hours of solitary ice fishing. when his expensive toy struck a rock and he bolted as the car caught fire.
No. Not any of that happened, but it did make for an interesting - if sketchy - narrative. It seems the whole story was invented from whole cloth as a cover for a particularly inept scheme to steal Teslas and turn them into Vermont Gold.
Photo: Norwegian Insurance Company
Investigators and the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont discovered that one Michael A. Gonzalez of Colchester, Vermont, was using his ability to con dealers out of Teslas into negotiable American cash.
It worked like this: As Tesla buyers simply needed to fork over a down payment of about $2,500 at the time of purchase and offer bank account details to seal the deal, opportunity presented itself. The customer, in this case the exceptionally inventive Mr. Gonzalez, simply followed the paperwork and went to a local outlet or had the car delivered to him.
At that point Mr. Gonzales found himself in possession of a Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin and registered the car under his name with Vermont authorities. It seems Mr. Gonzalez discovered that he could take delivery on a Tesla before any actual money changed hands. And that reality led him to take advantage of a situation that encouraged him to buy a top-of-the-line vehicle, have the car registered in his name, and abscond before Tesla and various banking minions figured out his plan.
It seems Gonzalez purchased his first Tesla (a Model 3) for the vaporous sum of $58,200 in September 2018. While he did make a fatal error in using his actual driver's license and bank account details to make the $2,500 down payment, he walked away after an email confirmation from Tesla with a brand spanking new, cutting-edge electric vehicle.
Photo: Yogi Vindum
Gonzalez then sold the car to a dealership for some $42,500. He then allegedly repeated the seamless process four more times with the aid of pals and blood relatives to buy more cars from Tesla. In total, he managed to lay hands to $607,000 worth of shiny new Teslas, according to the official indictment.
And this is where the entire venture went south. Gonzalez allegedly lit one of the Teslas afire to double his money via an insurance scam. After filing a claim with GEICO, Gonzalez ran afoul of that little lizard thing - and had his claim summarily denied - which set off an unfortunate series of events.
As a result of his not-so-subtle machinations, Gonzalez now faces up to ten years for each count, and his attorney, one Chandler Maston, Esq., told VICE via email that "we all have a natural tendency to rush to judgment, and the attention has certainly drawn with it that tendency", and he will do his best to defend his client.
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