New Orleans Boos a Cybertruck Off a Mardi Gras Parade, Breaks One of Its Windows

An orange Cybertruck from Texas with the license plate DUMPST5R took part in the Krewe of Orpheus parade in New Orleans Monday night as part of the kickoff of Mardi Gras. It left the parade route early after fairgoers threw so many beads and pieces of debris at the truck that it chipped the vehicle’s glass.

DUMPST5R the orange Cybertruck from Texas is owned by winespring, a woman who blogs about the food in the Wheel of Time fantasy franchise, and MrMoonBound, a man whose account on X links to a website that serves as the “3rd best walkthrough” for the 1994 SNES game Earthbound.

winespring livestreamed the Cybertruck’s harrowing journey through the parade on X. The video is more than three hours long, and the couple doesn’t enter the parade route proper until about an hour in. It doesn’t take long for the boos, jeers, and beads to start flying.

From inside the Cybertruck, the sound of the beads repeatedly ricocheting off the car is a constant din. winespring and MrMoonBound joke and make conversation, but there’s an obvious tension inside the Tesla.

There were multiple Cybertrucks in the Orpehus parade, and none of them fared well. “I’m just keeping everyone posted,” someone in the winespring’s truck says around 2 hours and 10 minutes in. “They’re talking about pulling all of the trucks off, for everyone’s safety and the safety of the vehicle…as soon as I get the call I’m going to find the nearest cop…and we’ll get out.” The sound of the plan is barely audible under the noise of beads striking the car.

Forty minutes later, around 2:50 in the video, the Cybetruck attempts to exit the route and signals to nearby cops. Beads keep striking the car while they talk to the officers. “We put out a call with state police. Is there any way we could move that barricade?” a person in the truck says.

The cops seem incredulous and confused. Beads continue to hit the car. “We need to get off the route,” the person in the Tesla says. “We’re getting beat to shit by people throwing stuff, jumping on the car, kicking the car, hitting the car.”

The cops get them out and, as they pull away, there are audible boos and something larger than beads hits the windshield. “We were so excited when we were asked to do this. Because we love New Orleans,” winespring says, an air of sadness in her voice.

A few minutes later, at 2:58, winespring tries to reassure the tense passengers as beads continue to bombard the Cybertruck. “We’ve seen John from Silicon Valley Tesla owners step on his windshield. We’ve seen a bomb go off inside of one. We’re OK,” she says.

“I’m about to pull the medical emergency card here,” a man says. “We’ve gotta go.”

“I would imagine, eventually, the glass is gonna start breaking,” a second man says. “If it already hasn’t.”

At the end of the video, the group pulls off under a streetlamp to assess the damage. The Cybertruck is covered in beads, and the trunk is full of them. The orange wrap seems undamaged in the dark of the night. The glass of the windows is not: “Looks like we might have some broken glass…broken glass, that’s sad,” winespring says as the camera pans over a divot in the back windshield. “Hopefully everyone else is OK…well that was the Orpheus parade.”

Tesla and Elon Musk are linked in the public consciousness, and as Musk’s attack on the federal government continues, people across the globe are taking it out on Tesla. Sales of the vehicles are down across Europe. Earlier this week, a Tesla showroom in France went up in flames in the middle of the night, destroying 12 vehicles and leaving an estimated $700,000 in damage.

It’s happening in America, too. Over the weekend, someone set fire to a Tesla charging station in Littleton, Massachusetts. Last month, someone fired a gun at a Tesla dealership in Oregon and set one of the cars on fire.

In Loveland, Colorado, the local Tesla dealership has been repeatedly assaulted. Someone threw a molotov cocktail at a Cybertruck at the end of January, and someone spray painted “Nazi” on a Tesla sign near the road a few days later. Days after that, someone threw molotov cocktails made from Smirnoff ice bottles at the cars and spray painted “Nazi cars” on them. Police have arrested a woman in connection with the attacks.

And it’s not just property damage. Many more people are marching through Tesla showrooms in less violent acts of protest. There’s an anti-Musk mood in the air and an avatar for him on the streets of America. As Musk’s attack on the institutions of the country ramp up, it appears that America’s attacks on his cars will, too.