{"id":351800,"date":"2026-07-25T01:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351800\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T01:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:17:18","slug":"tesla-driver-accused-of-asking-to-buy-children-during-disturbing-south-florida-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351800\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla driver accused of asking to buy children during disturbing South Florida encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A South Florida family says they had a disturbing encounter at a Pompano Beach intersection when a man driving a Tesla<\/a> allegedly asked to purchase their children and made lewd comments about their young daughter while they were stopped at a red light.<\/p>\n

According to CBS12 news partner WSVN<\/a>, Karl Messner was driving his family to dinner Saturday when they stopped at a red light at Sample Road and Federal Highway. While waiting for the light to change, a man driving a Tesla pulled up alongside them and began shouting to get Messner’s attention.<\/p>\n

“How much you got the child for? How much you got the children going for?” the man shouted from his car.<\/p>\n

See also: Toddler critically injured after toy kitchen incident at Boynton Beach babysitter’s house<\/a><\/p>\n

WSVN reported that Messner’s 6-year-old daughter was sitting in the back seat with her grandmother. The girl’s mother, who was seated in the front passenger seat, immediately began recording the encounter.<\/p>\n

As the family continued waiting at the light, the Tesla driver’s comments became even more disturbing. According to WSVN, he continued asking inappropriate questions about the children and made explicit remarks.<\/p>\n

The man later added, “I need to know how much they cost so I can make a decision.”<\/p>\n

WSVN said the young girl overheard the exchange. “Did he say he wanted to purchase me?” Messner said his daughter later asked.<\/p>\n

Once the light turned green and the family was able to drive away, they pulled over and called 911.<\/p>\n

The Broward Sheriff’s Office<\/a> is investigating the incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A South Florida family says they had a disturbing encounter at a Pompano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-351800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}