A Porsche owner was reunited with his stolen car, thanks to the help of a Tesla owner and Tesla’s Sentry Mode.
Tesla’s Sentry Mode is an integrated surveillance system inside Tesla’s vehicles using the Autopilot cameras around the car.
The system detects when there’s a “threat,” which basically consists of anyone or anything approaching the car, and starts recording.
It was released after there was a series of break-ins in Tesla vehicles in the Bay Area.
The system, which is built on Tesla’s TeslaCam dashcam system, has been changing the game when it comes to vandalizing parked cars.
We reported on several instances where Sentry Mode helped police with video evidence to help them identify and find vandals.
However, having thousands of Tesla vehicles with Sentry Mode out there has proven useful to not only Tesla owners but also their neighbors.
A good example happened this week after a Porsche Carrera 2, which can be quite expensive to this day depending on the configuration and condition, was stolen near Valencia, Spain.
The car was parked next to a Tesla Model 3 with Sentry Mode activated, and the owner shared the video with the Porsche owner.
A family member, Jose Saez-Merino, put it on social media and the video was seen more than 60,000 times:
https://twitter.com/josejacas/status/1282372669619482624?s=20
Saez-Merino called for people to share any information if they recognize the suspects or the car (translated from Spanish):
Porsche Carrera 2, registration 2397DBK stolen in Benicassim, Castellón, last night at 3:20 a.m. It will be complicated, but if someone knows something or knows someone in the video or photos, my DMs are open.
Less than 24 hours later, Saez-Merino reported that he was contacted by someone who spotted the rare car:
The thieves abandoned the vehicle for unknown reasons. It was returned to the owner in one piece.
Generally, thieves who target those kinds of vehicles are fairly organized and good at making them disappear.
Saez-Merino was surprised that they were able to recover the car (translated from Spanish):
Have they left it lying when they have seen that it was moving on social networks and media? Does the culprit live nearby? No idea at the moment.
In the past, we have reported instances of vandals turning themselves in after Tesla Sentry Mode videos of their crimes went viral on social media.
In order for TeslaCam and Sentry Mode to work on a Tesla, you need a few accessories. We recommend Jeda’s Model 3 USB hub (now also available for Model Y) to be able to still use the other plugs and hide your Sentry Mode drive. For the drive, I’m now using a Samsung portable SSD, which you need to format, but it gives you a ton of capacity, and it can be easily hidden in the Jeda hub.
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