AUSTIN, Texas — A Florida man remains in the Travis County Jail after allegedly making threats against Tesla's Cybertruck delivery event on Thursday.
Paul Ryan Overeem, of Orlando, was arrested by the Travis County Sheriff's Office after he allegedly threatened to shoot up people during the delivery event at Tesla Giga Texas in Austin, according to an affidavit obtained by KVUE.
Tesla was notified on Nov. 10 about an Instagram group chat where Overeem was allegedly making threats that read, "I need to be stopped" and "If I'm saying I'm gonna kill people then you should take this seriously."
The sheriff's office began investigating the threats on Nov. 28 after they were notified that no formal police report had been filed. That same morning, Overeem's 2015 black Chevrolet Tahoe was spotted by traffic cameras on Highway 290 in southwest Austin.
The next morning, Overeem's phone pinged along Almarion Way in West Austin. Authorities believe Overeem, who has no ties to Travis County, drove from Florida to Austin to potentially carry out the attack.
Overeem was charged with terroristic threat and remains in jail on bond. a $300,000 bond.
Theron Jenkins is a father whose son worked at the Cybertruck delivery event on Thursday. He and his family consider themselves big Tesla fans.
"Hearing things like that, you think, 'Are my kids safe?' It's really scary. It is really, really scary. And I pray about it every day," Jenkins said.
Texas attorney Adam Muery, who has a background in cybersecurity, said most people don't realize how much their phones can give away to law enforcement.
"So, law enforcement officials that work with these kinds of cases, they already have their liaison counterparts at Instagram or Yahoo or wherever else that they know to contact," Muery said. "And so, even though they put out that subpoena, all that requires is a district attorney's signature or attorney general's signature to go on it."
Muery said what happened does raise questions about people's privacy and concerns.
"A lot of people don't realize how much their cellphones give them away. I mean, typically, like if you were with AT&T, they have your GPS location every 30 seconds. And so, they can – most people don't realize, but you can go back and see everywhere where somebody has been," Muery said.
Jenkins said he breathed a sigh of relief that a possible tragedy was averted.
"You know, I would hate to lose a kid to something like that," he said. "I don't even know how that would feel."