Join me to hear the story of Michael A. Gonzalez, a serial Tesla thief. Why did he burn a Tesla? Well you’re going to have to join me to hear that and all about his drugs, guns, and baby mama drama. This is eCrimeBytes Season 2 Episode 15 Act 2: Burning Teslas With Michael A. Gonzalez – Act 2: That Worked?
For the background, please check out our prior act:
Sources:
- https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/michael-gonzalez-indicted-stealing-five-tesla-vehicles-worth-over-600000-including-tesla
- https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/michael-gonzalez-sentenced-48-months-prison-possessing-and-selling-stolen-teslas
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60317673/united-states-v-gonzalez/
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16878947/united-states-v-gonzalez/
- https://electrek.co/2023/10/12/man-who-swindled-5-free-cars-tesla-gets-4-years-sentence/ (Photo)
- https://www.vtcng.com/otherpapersbvt/news/police_blotter/former-south-burlington-man-jailed-in-case-of-five-stolen-teslas/article_6b73d4b6-0b56-11ec-8139-6379c4935b73.html (Photo)
- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-wework-documentary-explores-a-decade-of-delusion (Photo)
- https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/7/20953930/wework-adam-neumann-severance-laid-off-employees-layoffs-buyout-unicorn-ipo (Photo)
Transcript:
00:00:10:01 – 00:00:30:47
Keith
Hey ya crazy bastards welcome back to eCrimeBytes Season two Episode 15. This is Michael Gonzalez. He’s burning Teslas. That’s the only way I can explain it. And if you missed Act one, because this is act two. If you miss Act one, which gave you the background to all this, I do recommend that you go back and listen to it.
00:00:30:52 – 00:00:53:10
Keith
If you’re on YouTube, I’ll put a link up here so you can actually go back it just by clicking there. It gives you the background to a lot of the stuff introduced to you in this act, act two, which is called that worked because in Act One I just left you with Michael Gonzales. He ordered a Tesla. He paid the $2,500 deposit.
00:00:53:15 – 00:01:28:57
Keith
You know, using just like his money through TD Bank account, he owed about $56,000 on it. He initiated an ACH transfer out of his bank account that didn’t have the money. So it was a $56,000 charge but his bank account had at max at any one time, maybe $10,000. So couldn’t cover it. The transfer bounced, but by that time, Tesla already gave him the car and they gave him the manufacturer certificate of origin, which is that important piece of paper that allows him to title it or or sell it.
00:01:29:02 – 00:01:43:58
Keith
And he chose to sell it to a used car dealership and not give the money back to Tesla because his check bounced but keep it for himself. So now he just made money and then still owes Tesla over $56,000 or about $56,000.
00:01:43:58 – 00:01:51:39
Keith
So with that, let’s get into the meat of this act, act number two. So we just gave you Tesla number one.
00:01:51:44 – 00:02:12:39
Keith
There’s five Teslas involved here. We’re now in Tesla number two. Okay. This is December 31st of 2018. This is the same day he just sold the other Tesla to the used car dealership. This guy’s prolific. He is active. He reserved a 2018 Tesla model X. I’m not familiar with Tesla. I don’t know if they call that Model X or Model ten.
00:02:12:39 – 00:02:22:27
Keith
I’m just going to call it model X from here on out because he named Twitter X and I imagine that’s probably what he meant. I could be wrong. Don’t shoot me.
00:02:22:27 – 00:02:33:47
Keith
So if you’re not familiar with the cost of this type of car, $144,000. I had to think back to my first house decades ago.
00:02:33:49 – 00:03:04:08
Keith
Many decades ago, my first house didn’t even cost this. So this is a very considerable cost for a car, at least in my opinion. I mean, it’s a very expensive car. His last car he was just doing this with Tesla was about 50, $60,000. He jumped to $144,000. So that’s a pretty big jump. Now, again, in this one, when he ordered the car, he provided addresses in Burlington and Underhill, Vermont, with his copy of his Vermont driver’s license.
00:03:04:13 – 00:03:27:53
Keith
Why? I don’t know. He paid the $2,500 a down payment from his account or from an account from a third party. Now this third party. This is why these all these things are going to get intermingled here. The third parties name is KC. Their name is in KC, their initials are KC because we’re not going to name them because they become a victim later on.
00:03:27:58 – 00:03:35:56
Keith
So KC is the mother of his child. And that’s why later on in one of these acts, it’s called baby mama drama, because this comes back.
00:03:35:56 – 00:03:52:26
Keith
So after Gonzales paid this $2,500 through her account, he now owns a mere $141,000 on this car, just a mere six figures, right? Well in the six figures. Not even just in the six figures.
00:03:52:26 – 00:04:19:12
Keith
Well in the six figures. So he then pretends he’s going to pay the balance on this, just like he did the last one. He initiated transfers from four different bank accounts. None of them have enough money to cover his bill. Tesla delivered the vehicle and then said, Hey buddy, thanks for starting those transfers. Here’s the manufacturer certificate of origin that you need to do everything with this car.
00:04:19:12 – 00:04:20:28
Keith
Even though we haven’t seen the money yet,
00:04:20:28 – 00:04:48:30
Keith
what happens? Well, in early 2019, they all bounced. All those wire transfers that he started. They all bounced because he didn’t have funds. Surprise, surprise. Okay. And here we go. That is a crazy, crazy story with Tesla. Number two, it gets crazier. Here’s a little tidbit. Not electronic crime related, but I thought it was kind of humorous.
00:04:48:35 – 00:05:11:05
Keith
So January 21st of 2019, while he’s driving around that stolen Tesla. Number two, there’s this surveillance camera, and the surveillance camera picks him up charging this Tesla at a supercharger station near Berlin, Vermont. So imagine
00:05:11:05 – 00:05:20:25
Keith
there’s a camera that has the Superchargers in view of it, and there he is. He pulls that car in to charge it.
00:05:20:30 – 00:05:20:57
Keith
Okay.
00:05:20:57 – 00:05:50:20
Keith
After he’s done charging it, he goes into the store fucking steals a $1,200 rocking chair, places it into the Tesla and drives the fuck off with it. So now he stole a rocking chair and I’m sitting there thinking, Holy shit, what a $1,200 rocking chair. This rocking chair was it made of gold? I mean, that’s such an expensive price tag for a chair.
00:05:50:20 – 00:06:09:52
Keith
It’s got to be custom or something. It had to be an amazing rocking chair. So amazing that it was like, enticing for him to steal jam into a Tesla and speed the hell off. All right, So, like his other car, there’s a point where Gonzalez is like, I’m done with this. And on January 22nd, he decides to sell it.
00:06:09:57 – 00:06:18:47
Keith
He lists this one on Craigslist. He sold this one for 90 K, So pretty big jump from almost 150 K where he bought it.
00:06:18:47 – 00:06:37:23
Keith
He said on the Craigslist ad, he says, you know, he listed for sale for $108,000 at the time and he’s used words like mint condition, highest end Tesla model 2000 miles was once $149,000 new. Mike.
00:06:37:28 – 00:06:38:48
Keith
Yeah. He puts his damn name in there.
00:06:38:48 – 00:06:50:37
Keith
So then he sold it for $90,000 like I said. He got $60,000 cash. I’ve never held on to that much cash. I couldn’t even imagine. It must be a briefcase, right? Who knows?
00:06:50:37 – 00:06:58:50
Keith
$30,000 of it is a check. And I imagine when Gonzalez, being the schemer he is, gets $60,000 worth of cash and $30,000 worth of
00:06:58:50 – 00:07:25:07
Keith
the check probably goes at least I have $60,000 and if the $30,000 bounces at least I still have this 30, the 60,000 and, you know, the car stolen. So I still made $60,000. Right. So when the buyer bought it, Gonzalez provided that manufacturer’s certificate of origin to the buyer so it looked legit. Now, Gonzalez never took any of that money and paid Tesla back.
00:07:25:07 – 00:07:30:16
Keith
He still owed over $140,000 to Tesla on Tesla number two.
00:07:30:16 – 00:07:59:36
Keith
Now we get into Tesla number three, and this is just a couple of days later, this is January 24th of 2019. They agreed on $152,000 price for another Tesla 2018 Model X. Delivery address, and this one was in Dunnellon in Florida. I may mispronounce it Dunnellon in Florida with a copy of a Florida driver’s license.
00:07:59:40 – 00:08:11:39
Keith
Now, he used a PayPal account to pay the down payment of $2,500. And then he had initiated the transfers like before without the sufficient funds to cover it.
00:08:11:39 – 00:08:30:31
Keith
And two days later, Tesla delivered this car from a store in Tampa, Florida. Tesla did not did not provide the manufacturer certificate of origin. So that piece of paper that Gonzalez needs to register it or sell it, he does not have it in this case.
00:08:30:36 – 00:08:36:34
Keith
So I imagine at this point he’s probably shitting a brick going, what am I going to do with this car? Right.
00:08:36:34 – 00:08:50:53
Keith
What would you do? Right? If you were in his position would you try it. I don’t know. Like, would you just abandon it? I don’t know. What would you do you have a car that’s obviously stolen at the point where you can’t register it or sell it to anybody?
00:08:50:53 – 00:09:14:27
Keith
Gonzalez, he decides he’s had enough. He needs a break. He says, I’m going to go out. I’m going to relax. I’m gonna do a little ice fishing. This is February 24th of 2019. He said while he was out there, he drove his Tesla out onto the ice. He was ice fishing. The Tesla started hissing. It caught fire.
00:09:14:27 – 00:09:17:54
Keith
Caught fire. Okay. So he drove his car out there on the ice.
00:09:17:54 – 00:09:37:35
Keith
Now, listen, I come from a northern state, originally Michigan. I’ve seen people drive out on the ice. So southern states are probably going, that sounds crazy. No, people do this. I don’t know if I’d drive a car like a Tesla. I’d probably drive a four wheel like SUV out there because usually there’s snow and stuff like that.
00:09:37:35 – 00:09:45:13
Keith
But hey, he drove it out there and then he claims it just magically caught on fire and burned. Okay,
00:09:45:13 – 00:10:02:52
Keith
now I have a picture of this Tesla that I’m putting on the screen for you. Now, this is the evidence. This is the Tesla that burned. You know, he’s not even really that close to shore. Right? So you can imagine you can imagine investigators are going to look at this and go, this is weird.
00:10:03:03 – 00:10:24:22
Keith
There’s a burned Tesla out there. Well, let’s you know, he said he was out ice fishing. Let’s trust the dude. Right. Let’s just let’s just double check his story. Hey, DNR, when when did he buy his Vermont fishing license? And Vermont says, well, he actually bought it a week after the Tesla burnt. And so investigators went, Wow, that’s pretty interesting.
00:10:24:22 – 00:10:37:16
Keith
That doesn’t sound like he actually was out ice fishing when he said he was out ice fishing. Right. Sounds like you probably burnt a Tesla and then went, shit, I didn’t even have an ice fishing license. I better go get one a week later when he thought of it.
00:10:37:16 – 00:10:40:13
Keith
Now this is probably not a shock to you.
00:10:40:17 – 00:11:01:23
Keith
The fire department responded and the car was totaled. And to audio listeners, I’m sorry, I can’t. I didn’t do the description of the picture but it’s it’s it’s burned down to the like the wheels and a couple structural components where you can kind of tell it’s a car. You can mostly tell it’s a car because of the wheels, but most of the rest of it’s burnt.
00:11:01:23 – 00:11:18:03
Keith
And then there’s kind of these like vertical struts that go up in the air. They kind of make it look like there’s some doors there. That’s really all you can tell. And so it’s it’s totaled. This thing for fuck sure you’re not driving this thing. Right? All right. So
00:11:18:03 – 00:11:22:53
Keith
like I said, Gonzales was stuck with this car and he didn’t know what else to do, and he burned it.
00:11:22:53 – 00:11:49:03
Keith
And when he burnt it, he says, I’m going to make money by filing an insurance claim. Right. Couldn’t make money any other way on this. So he filed an insurance claim with Geico. And you can imagine GEICO has been in the business for a while. They probably looked at this and went, Yeah, we’re going to need you to sit for a quote unquote examination under oath and bring all the ownership documents for that Tesla
00:11:49:08 – 00:12:12:49
Keith
with you and Gonzales probably shit a brick and went, I don’t have any of these documents that they’re asking for. And when Geico scheduled this examination on June 7th of 2019, Gonzales didn’t show up. And so they said, you must have you must have misunderstood. We’re going to reschedule it again. This one’s going be June 19th of 2019.
00:12:12:54 – 00:12:29:39
Keith
Gonzales didn’t show up to that one either. So at the end of the year, on December 2nd of 2019, Geico then denied the claim. So he didn’t even make money through insurance. And questionably I would say there’s insurance fraud on the table here criminally for him as well.
00:12:29:39 – 00:12:33:01
Keith
So with that, boy, we’ve only gone through a couple more Teslas.
00:12:33:01 – 00:12:55:58
Keith
There’s a couple more Teslas coming at you. We have to pause on act two, because we have Act three, which is baby mama drama coming up where some of these crimes he did are going to start to intermingle with each other and just get this whole story a little more crazy. So if there’s anything in this act that you like, please, like subscribe, follow, thumbs up, whatever it is on your application, go to our website.
00:12:55:58 – 00:13:16:45
Keith
eCrimeBytes dot com bytes spelled the computer away. Y as in yellow milk. And with that I do hope that you come back. On act number three tomorrow, this one’s baby mama drama and everything’s going to heat up. We have a few more Teslas that are going to go stolen from Tesla and we have some more guns involved.
00:13:16:45 – 00:13:21:32
Keith
It’s just it’s going to go crazy from here. So I hope to see you back then. Thanks. Bye.
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