A Saskatoon man says he was the target of vandalism for owning a Cybertruck.
Josh MacGowan walked up to his new Tesla Cybertruck outside his home last Thursday to see deep cuts and scratches along the driver’s side of his vehicle.
Thanks to a series of cameras on the truck, he was quickly able to capture video of a man walking up to his vehicle, pulling out a knife and carving into it for roughly a dozen seconds before continuing on.
“Right away I figured it was probably something political just with everything going on right now,” MacGowan said.
MacGowan is one of a growing number of Tesla owners who feel they’re being targeted because of Tesla founder Elon Musk’s close ties with United States President Donald Trump and his controversial political views.
“Tesla owners are just people,” he said. “If you’re trying to yell at them or wreck their vehicle, you’re really not hurting your target.”
MacGowan has been driving Tesla vehicles for three years. He originally ordered his Cybertruck in 2021, but didn’t get it delivered and start driving it until last November.
It was a matter of weeks before MacGowan began feeling uncomfortable, as Musk became less associated with his group of companies and more associated with his ties to Trump and his upcoming inauguration.
MacGowan, the owner of Supplement World in Saskatoon, bought his vehicle for one simple reason: marketing.
Growing up, MacGowan marveled at Jerry’s Food Emporium, a former restaurant on 8th Street, whose owner was known for cruising the streets of Saskatoon in an oversized yellow Hummer with company branding on the side.
As MacGowan’s business has grown, he’s formed a habit of driving eye-catching vehicles around the city, but he never imagined back in 2021 that his desire for a flashy vehicle would put a target on his back.
“Everybody, I think, has their own reason for getting a Tesla. A lot of them want the environmental (reasons) or the technology or the full self-driving — and I would guess almost none of them were purchased for political reasons,” MacGowan said.
Jim Barnsley, founder of an advocacy group of electric vehicle owners called SaskEV, says some Tesla owners are becoming uncomfortable behind the wheel.
“All of us who’ve got electric cars, it’s amazing all the different reasons you buy them, but they’re all good. And, you know, it’s tragic that people get so upset about it,” Barnsley said.
“It’s just not right. It’s criminal. It’s vandalism. It’s destruction.”
MacGowan took to social media, posting video of his truck being damaged as he looked for help identifying the attacker. The next day, a few people reached out to him saying they knew the man. Later that day, the man seen in the video contacted MacGowan and admitted he was the one who damaged his truck.
“He said he feels really bad about it, and it was eating him up,” MacGowan said of the strangely pleasant conversation.
According to MacGowan, the man plans on co-operating with Saskatoon police and accepts his punishment. While he feels fortunate things came to a peaceful resolution, he wishes he could have avoided the situation altogether.
Had he known a vehicle that was once applauded for its environmental sustainability would become a controversial political lightning rod, MacGowan says he never would have bought it. He even looked at trading it earlier that day.
“I was at the Ford dealership a couple hours before (the truck was damaged) and had a quote, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to (sell) it or not, but I always try to stay out of polarizing things with our business,” MacGowan said.
“I bought it just as a truck, but maybe some people didn’t see it that way.”
