{"id":65697,"date":"2025-11-30T20:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/65697\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T20:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:32:09","slug":"st-pete-man-arrested-after-stealing-cybertruck-during-test-drive-causing-20k-in-damages-pcso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/65697\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete man arrested after stealing Cybertruck during test drive, causing $20K in damages: PCSO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. &#8211; A St. Petersburg man is accused of stealing a Tesla Cybertruck while on a test drive and causing approximately $20,000 in damages to the vehicle, the Pinellas County Sheriff\u2019s Office said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">MORE NEWS:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/seminole-heights-restaurant-surveillance-cameras-capture-break-in-suspect-stealing-cash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> Seminole Heights restaurant surveillance cameras capture break-in, suspect stealing cash<\/a><\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Timeline:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">According to a criminal affidavit, on Nov. 17, Richel Valdivia, 26, agreed to test drive a 2025 Tesla Cybertruck for 30 minutes from the dealership at 3224 35th Street North.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The report says Valdivia never returned the vehicle, instead keeping it for approximately two days.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/valdivia-mug-ps-11.30.png\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-0dea8073=\"\">Courtesy: Pinellas County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">On Nov. 19, an assistant manager at the Tesla dealership found the stolen Cybertruck at Valdivia\u2019s home. The vehicle had been seriously damaged, and the dealer tag had been removed, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The damage included a smashed rearview mirror, a missing GPS monitor and a detached sun visor on the driver\u2019s side. The front fender flares had been partially torn off. Small rocks and a pair of men\u2019s underwear were found inside the flares.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">PCSO says the assistant manager was able to get video footage from the Cybertruck, which showed Valdivia striking the rearview mirror multiple times, destroying the rearview camera and shattering the mirror\u2019s glass.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Valdivia was arrested and faces charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle and criminal mischief.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">CLICK HERE:&gt;&gt;&gt; <a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@fox13tampa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Follow FOX 13 on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information for this story was gathered from a criminal affidavit and the Pinellas County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/pinellas\/st-petersburg\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. &#8211; A St. Petersburg man is accused of stealing a Tesla Cybertruck while on a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[630,47,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-65697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65697","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=65697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}