Police nab woman who trashed Tesla Cybertruck parked outside Brooklyn Yeshiva

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Apr 12, 2025

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NEW YORK — Detectives have arrested a 46-year-old woman recorded dumping trash on a Tesla Cybertruck parked on a Brooklyn sidewalk in an apparent swipe against the company’s controversial CEO Elon Musk, police said Saturday.

Natasha Cohen, who lives around the block from where the vandalism took place, is also accused of leaving a brick with a swastika drawn on it atop the Tesla outside a yeshiva on Ditmas Ave. near Ocean Parkway in Kensington at about 5:50 p.m. on Monday.

Hate Crimes detectives arrested Cohen on Friday evening, charging her with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief, as well as aggravated harassment and criminal mischief as hate crimes since a swastika, the symbol of the Nazi party, was left at the scene.

It was not immediately disclosed how detectives identified Cohen as the vandal. Her arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending.

If one is convicted of a hate crime, they could be sentenced to more prison time than the standard charge calls for.

Monday’s vandalism was the fourth time in a month someone has vandalized a Tesla found parked on a New York City street in opposition to Musk and his role as head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump, New York Police Department officials said.

The 38-year-old owner of the Tesla Cybertruck had left his electric vehicle on a sidewalk parking spot outside the Yeshiva next to a pile of garbage bags.

A few moments later, Cohen, riding a Razor kick scooter, allegedly rolled up on the Tesla, emptied one of the garbage bag’s contents onto its roof and hood and then etched a swastika on a brick, which she placed on the car.

Cohen, who was wearing a pink hooded jacket, blue jeans and black rainboots, allegedly rode off before the owner returned to the car.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force investigated the incident and released surveillance images of a suspect in the hopes someone would recognize her.

Last month, on March 27, two men approached a Tesla parked on Monroe St. near Patchen Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 1 a.m. and etched the word “Nazis” and a swastika on its side, marring a 2-inch-by-2-inch section of the passenger side door.

The Tesla came equipped with a surveillance camera, which caught the vandalism, police said.

In an unrelated incident a few hours later, in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, a 39-year-old man approached his Tesla parked near the corner of Hawthorne St. and Rogers Ave. and learned someone slapped a sticker on the driver’s side bumper.

The sticker had a swastika and the word “Musk” on it, police said.

On March 6, a masked duo spray-painted a red swastika on a Tesla Cybertruck they found parked near the corner of Rivington and Chrystie Sts. on the Lower East Side, police said.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the other three incidents. No arrests have been made.

Anti-Trump administration protesters have zeroed in on Tesla electric vehicles since Musk began chain-sawing federal government spending and agency staffing as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Critics quickly likened Musk to a Nazi after he was recorded giving what some considered to be a Nazi salute during an event for Trump last November.

However, the vandalism of Teslas with swastikas and “Nazi” scrawls has raised the question of whether these incidents are actually hate crimes or not. Musk has said he definitely feels they are.

Last month, nine people were arrested during a nonviolent “Pull the Plug on Elon Musk” protest at a Tesla dealership in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Similar protests have erupted across the country.

On the more extreme end, some Tesla vehicles and charging stations have been the target of violence and arson attacks. Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, recently branded these incidents “domestic terrorism,” vowing to throw the perpetrators “behind bars.”