One man didn’t want to cause too much of a scene after he caused property damage with his car, but he forgot to turn off an automatic safety measure on his iPhone. That’s what happened to a 23-year-old Tesla driver in Florida when he crashed into a light pole near a waterfront resort community. He attempted to clean the mess up without alerting anyone to what happened. But the cops received a notification anyway despite his best efforts to get away scot-free.
Man said he didn’t call police because he didn’t want to waste their time
On September 20 at around 9:30 p.m., deputies from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to an alert they received after 23-year-old Christopher Brewer drove his Tesla into a light pole and several trees in front of the Miromar Lakes resort community, according to a report by local outlet Gulf Coast News.
By the time deputies arrived on the scene, however, no one was there. Brewer was not at the location, though the debris had been cleaned up. The damage done to the property was estimated to be around $20,000. But law enforcement knew something had happened because they had received a 911 call that night by way of an automated crash notification from Brewer’s iPhone.
This cellphone feature automatically detects whether a driver is involved in a crash. A message appears on the screen for 30 seconds, and if the user doesn’t respond within that time, the safety measure calls 911 for the driver.
“That’s pretty cool that they were able to find him that way,” said Hannah Craigs, who reacted to the story from a reporter for Gulf Coast News. “That sucks for him, I guess. I mean, he should’ve turned it off or something, put it on airplane mode.”
The arrest report says the deputies asked Miromar Lakes security for more information and they said Brewer and another person said that he was going to the hospital. That didn’t happen, though, after they learned from a woman that Brewer was actually at her house and had not gone to the hospital.
Booking information reveals that Brewer was booked at 5:06 a.m. on September 21 and faces one charge of hit and run. He posted a cash bond of $150 and was released several hours later.
