Robert Hanashiro / USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Tesla’s Cybertruck has become a fairly divisive vehicle thanks in no small part to its links to Elon Musk, and plenty of people have embraced a movement that involves flashing a thumbs down in its direction if you encounter one in the wild. However, that did not sit well with one person who could be facing some legal trouble for deploying pepper spray against someone who pulled that move.
It’s been close to six years since Tesla unveiled the prototype for the Cybertruck, the futuristic SUV boasting a boxy frame made of stainless steel and supposedly unbreakable windows that immediately shattered after someone threw a metal ball at them in an attempt to prove that point during the reveal.
The first Cybertrucks were slated to roll off the production line in 2021 and retail for a base price of around $40,000, but that number had spiked over $60,000 by the time the first batch started getting delivered toward the end of 2023 due to a string of delays linked to the various design flaws that were detected once they started to hit the streets.
Elon Musk’s reputation had already started to take a hit by that point, and his decision to get increasingly political in 2024 accelerated the backlash that was not only targeted at the divisive billionaire but many people who’d made the decision to buy a vehicle made by Tesla.
That development launched a cottage industry built on a foundation of the bumper stickers that many owners of the company’s cars have harnessed to let the world know they bought theirs before Musk took that aforementioned turn.
However, it’s been a bit harder for Cybertruck owners to distance themselves from the Tesla CEO, as the purposefully ostentatious behemoths are inextricably linked with Musk fanboys who don’t have any qualms about being associated with him.
That’s led to plenty of Cybertruck haters deciding to deploy a thumbs down (and, in some cases, a slightly longer finger) when they come across one—an admittedly juvenile but largely harmless form of protest many people who own them have become fairly accustomed to.
It finally happened! The Cybertruck got a “thumbs down” from a fellow Tesla driver
Happy Friday! pic.twitter.com/PNUg5ioAtq
— James Gomez Jr. 🔪 (@jamesgomezjr) April 26, 2024
However, according to a post that was recently shared by the Palmer Police Department, one Cybertruck driver who was making his way through the town in central Massachusetts earlier this week got fed up and decided to confront a man who hit him with a thumbs down before pepper-spraying him at a gas station and leaving the scene.
As the post notes, the suspect was a “a white male, possibly in their 40’s wearing a ball cap,” which—at the risk of stereotyping Cybertruck drivers—doesn’t really seem to narrow down the list of potential culprits.