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Worcester man wants to return Tesla Cybertruck after ‘Nazis’ sticker incident
On Tuesday, police in Tyngsborough reported swastikas being drawn near a group of Tesla charging stations.
A Worcester man who drives a gold Tesla Cybertruck said the electric car company won’t take the truck back after he and his family found a sticker on the back of the vehicle accusing them of being Nazi sympathizers.
Kumait Jaroje, a physician who runs a cosmetic surgery clinic in Southborough, said he bought the Cybertruck in April and outfitted it with gold to match his business’s logo. Before the election, he said, reactions to Cybertruck were inane.
“After Elon Musk backed President Donald Trump publicly, people became more aggressive,” Jaroje told Boston.com. “Instead of just thumbs down, or laughing, or middle fingers, you can see people screaming in their cars when I drive by. Sometimes at rotaries, people trying to cut me off, like beeping at me.”
Then, when his wife drove his children to school last week, she found a black and yellow, square sticker on the back of the truck that read “Nazis f– off” in capital letters, he said. Now, she won’t drive the truck at all.
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Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, declared his public support for President Donald Trump after the first assassination attempt against the then-candidate. Since the new administration has taken over the White House, Musk has been a constant presence as the leader of the nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency.
“The hate is unbelievable. If you fill up your heart with hate, that could just control all your actions,” Jaroje said, who moved here from Syria in 2010 and is now a citizen. Jaroje wouldn’t say whether he supports Trump and Musk, noting that he can’t risk his business the way Musk can when he’s “saying whatever he wants.”
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North of Worcester, near the New Hampshire border, Tyngsborough police recently responded to a report of hate speech written near Tesla charging stations. Police found two swastikas and “several phrases, including ‘normalize hate’ on the asphalt near the stations on Feb. 11, the department said.
“At this time, we believe this to be an isolated incident. There have not been any similar reports anywhere in the community,” Chief Shaun Woods said in a release. “Acts of this nature are extremely rare in our community, and we take them seriously.”
Jaroje, who said he briefly considered moving out of Worcester when they found the sticker, said he called Tesla to trade in the car, and the company said it wasn’t taking Cybertrucks back. He also called a Rhode Island dealership, which said it doesn’t accept Teslas.
“I felt weird, like somebody left with no hope,” Jaroje said. “Everybody explained that because of the recent Musk position from Trump and the Democrats, and, more specifically, the salute he’s did, that’s why everybody’s flipping off and everybody’s trying to get rid of their Teslas.”
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
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