DALLAS — The owner of a Tesla that was keyed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has filed a lawsuit against the man seen in the video, according to court documents.
Video of the keying went viral online, and Donald Trump Jr. amplified it by posting a screenshot of the man’s face.
“Internet do your thing,” Trump Jr. posted to X.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by WFAA, the owner said he parked his 2022 Tesla Model X was parked on March 13 at Terminal A, Level 5 near Gate 17 at DFW Airport while he was travelling out of town. The man, who referred to himself as “J.N.” in the lawsuit, said he returned to his vehicle on March 16 to see “significant damage to the passenger side of the vehicle. J.N. said there was “a deep engraving or indentation running along he passenger side of his Tesla vehicle from the rear to the front.”
J.N. reviewed his Tesla’s built-in cameras and found the video footage of “a middle-aged man walking next to [J.N.’s] vehicle, holding what appeared to be a key … forcibly pushing up, down, and across the passenger side of the Tesla as he walked by it.
The video referenced in the lawsuit was posted online, and Trump Jr.’s repost of the man’s face led to him being identified, according to the lawsuit. WFAA is not naming the man seen keying the Tesla on the video because no charges have been filed in the case.
J.N. is suing the man in the video “seeking monetary damages for the loss of reduction of his vehicle’s value.”
“His objective and intent was to cause not only physical property damage to the vehicle, but also, as an intended and deliberate consequence, mental and emotional injury and harm to Tesla vehicle owners like [J.N.], who would foreseeably and undoubtedly suffer and endure a painful reaction to the damage, particularly in light of the current Tesla Takedown Movement and related environmental conditions existing today,” the lawsuit read. “Such intended consequences have included threats, intimidation, horror, shame, humiliation, stress, agony, and worry to [J.N.] and other Tesla owners.”