Penrith: Woman caught “keying” Tesla in carpark

Police are using footage taken from the “car of the future” to hunt for the woman who “keyed” the car in a Penrith carpark. Read the owner’s reaction.

A woman was caught on video “keying” a Tesla Model 3 at the Westfield Penrith carpark on Sunday afternoon.

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Police are using state-of-the-art technology on the “car of the future” — a Tesla Model 3 — to hunt for the woman who “keyed” a car in a Penrith carpark on Sunday.

A viral video of the footage, which has been viewed more than 378,000 times on Facebook and more than 424,000 times on Twitter, shows a woman dragging her key along the side of the car parked in Penrith Westfield carpark at about 2.19pm.

The car’s owner, Jordan Springs’ Darren Pearce, said his son noticed the damage when they returned home from shopping.

“I didn’t notice at the shops because there were cars on both sides,” he said.

The video was captured by the car’s ‘Sentry Mode’, described by Tesla’s website as a “unique layer of protection”.

When enabled, Sentry Mode enters a ‘standby’ state which uses the car’s external cameras to detect potential threats.

Police have since confirmed they are looking for the woman.

The woman police want to speak to in relation to an incident where a Tesla Model 3 was keyed in the carpark of Westfield Penrith.

A police spokesman told the Press the maximum penalty for the charge is five years in jail.

The Tesla Model 3, which is an electric-powered high performance vehicle with the most up-to-date technology, is worth about $110,000.

Mr Pearce, 53, said he was “disappointed” by the woman’s actions.

“It’s not like someone just gave me this car, I worked really hard for it,” he said.

“I bought it last December, and it’s only got 3000 kilometres on it.

“I’m having someone look at it on Wednesday to see if the key went through the wrap to the paint – that’ll determine how much the damage will cost to fix.

“The police rang me this morning and said Westfield had footage of her, so they’re following it up.

“I’ve had no problems up until this incident, and I didn’t expect it to be an older woman – you’d expect it to be a younger guy.”

Darren Pearce's Tesla Model 3 before it was keyed in a Westfield carpark. Picture: Facebook.

The carpet layer said it would take him a “long time” to want to take the car to Penrith Westfield again.

Mr Pearce said he was surprised at how ‘viral’ the video went overnight, but said not every Sentry Mode video was negative.

“I’m on the Model 3 Facebook page, and I just thought it’d stay there,” he said.

“It just went crazy, which is good because hopefully I don’t have to pay my excess.

“You see a lot of things because of Sentry Mode. I’ve got one video at Scenic World where this kid and his mother came up and started taking photos in front of the car.”