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Thieves are targeting high-powered Tesla and other EV charging stations and stealing the heavy cable for the copper metal inside.
In Vallejo, someone cut cables from nine charging stations — leaving Tesla drivers in a bind, and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage and repair costs.
“It most likely happened in the night, and we found it early morning,” Josh Beckler of Vallejo said.
He and his wife were two of the first people to find the cut cables early Mother’s Day morning.
He is also a retired Marine and former investigator for a major big box hardware chain who routinely investigated similar thefts where thieves targeted generators and other items for the copper wire.
“You know, they left five charging stations. I’m pretty sure after they racked up, I don’t know what the quantity was, but almost 20 cables with the nozzles. Those are extremely heavy, so I’m imagining that’s all they could haul at one given time,” Beckler said.
In all, nine of the Tesla supercharging stations’ cables behind the Vallejo Target store were cut over the weekend and reported to Vallejo police early Sunday morning, leaving drivers in a bind.
“I think this is the second time, or third that these have been cut, so they need to put some gates up or something. I don’t know what they can do, but this is pretty inconvenient,” John Brown III of American Canyon said.
Beckler said sadly, it’s a sign of just how desperate many in the Bay Area are right now. Willing to risk life and freedom for a couple hundred bucks in copper wire.
Tesla energy workers had all of the stations back up and running by dinner time Monday but this isn’t an isolated incident.
There have been reports of EV cables stolen from charging stations across the U.S. recently.