Apparently, hell hath no fury like a surgery patient scorned. A 79-year-old man became so furious with his doctor that he wore a mask and dealt damage to his Tesla. The suspect thought that he could get away easily, but he failed to take the Tesla’s built-in cameras into consideration. So it was only a matter of time before the cops showed up at his doorstep and knocked on his door.
79-year-old wanted to get back at doctor who canceled his surgeries
On September 16, 79-year-old Glen Lee Ong who resides at the Village of Hammock at Fenney was arrested on felony charges after putting on a mask and smashing the windshield of his doctor’s black Tesla with a hammer, according to a report from Villages News and WFTV 9.
Law enforcement originally received a call after employees from Optimotion Orthopedics, located at 555 E. State Road 44 in Wildwood, Florida, observed a suspect dressed stealthily striking a black Tesla twice.
According to the arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department, witnesses say that the man was wearing a black surgical mask, a light-green shirt, black sweatpants, a gray hat, blue sneakers, prescription glasses, and an Apple Watch. He drove into the parking lot in a red Chevrolet pickup truck and made several dents in the black Tesla, causing roughly $1,600 in damage, before getting back into the truck for a quick getaway.
Employees at the clinic heard the two bangs and discovered the damage done to the Tesla after going into the parking lot. The Tesla’s owner, a physician who works at the center, provided police with recorded footage from the vehicle that captured the suspect and the attack.
When officers asked the doctor whether he could think of anyone who would want to damage his Tesla, he told them about Ong because he had been a “difficult patient.” The doctor had chosen to cancel the man’s surgery because he had taken a sip of water before the scheduled operation.
After gathering all of the relevant information, police went to Ong’s residence to question him on October 9. However, the man said he didn’t know anything about an alleged attack on a Tesla even after he was presented evidence by the officers. He said he was never a patient at Optimotion Orthopedics, didn’t know the doctor, and was not the owner of a red pickup truck. Ong saw a photograph that they had of the truck, but said that the stickers on the vehicle wasn’t present on his own.
But these turned out to be flimsy excuses. When officers inspected Ong’s truck in the garage, they saw where the stickers had been peeled off since there was still residue left behind. The license plate of the truck also matched the one in the photograph.
Cornered, Ong finally admitted that he was responsible for damaging the Tesla. He said that he wanted get revenge on the doctor after he had canceled the surgery after he was already prepped and ready for the procedure.
“That guy screwed me over, twice,” he told officers. “I was already dressed up to do the surgery, and he called it off just because I had a sip of water. I went through all that trouble going down there, having someone to take me down there, and that [expletive] turned me down.”
However, the reason why surgery patients are asked not to eat or drink water before an operation is because fluid from the stomach can regurgitate back into the lungs while the patient is under general anesthesia.
Ong was arrested on October 9 and was charged with criminal mischief causing at least $1,000 in damage and wearing a mask while committing a felony. He was transported to the Sumter County Detention Center without incident and is free on $20,000 bond.
