Tesla's 'sentry mode' video captures man keying Model 3 in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO - A Tesla owner wants to know who keyed his car while he was having lunch in San Francisco and he’s disseminating video of the act in the hopes of finding the perpetrator,

Sam Cho of Oakland told KTVU on Tuesday that he just got the estimate back for his roughed-up white 2019 Tesla Model 3.

“It’s going to cost $4,800 to rebuff the entire door,” he said, adding that his insurance will cover it.

Cho said he was having lunch with friends Sunday at a restaurant in the Inner Sunset when his Tesla’s "sentry mode" cameras picked up footage of a man scraping the passenger side of the car with what appears to be a key, twice.  Cho's car was parked  at 10th Avenue and Irving Street. The unidentified man wearing a North Face jacket, construction boots and AirPods.

When Cho returned to his car after lunch, one of his friends alerted him to the damage.

Cho said he has no idea why the man chose his car to vandalize. He insists he didn’t cut the man off on the road, or do anything else that would have upset him.

“I would love to know the motive,” Cho said. “I’ve never seen the guy.”

Cho said he filed a report Monday with the San Francisco Police Department.

The Model 3's sentry mode feature allows the car owner to monitor suspicious activities around the Tesla when it's parked and locked in specified locations. The car has nine motion-activated cameras found in several strategic places.

Cho said he is making public the video to try to find the perpetrator so that he won’t do it again.

He’s hoping to have the same luck as a Tesla owner in Sacramento whose car was keyed in May 2019.  The video went viral and two suspects turned themself in.

Anyone with information related to the San Francisco vandalism is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 415-575-4444.