Updated on Sep 4, 2021 0 In February of 2019, an unexpected ornament adorned the frozen surface of Lake Champlain in Vermont: a Tesla Model X, burned to an extra-crispy shell. According to local Vermont news site WCAX, a man identified by police as Michael A. Gonzalez claimed he drove the vehicle onto a frozen patch of Shelburne Bay to go ice fishing. No one knows for sure, but Gonazlez may have hit a rock and the Tesla ended up a toasty fireball; even then it barely made a dent in the thick ice. Within days of the Model X spontaneously catching fire on the lake (some Tesla Motors Club forum commenters blame the Lake Champlain Monster, whatever that is) a flatbed truck was dispatched to haul the carcass away. By that time, the Model X looked like Wile E. Coyote after Roadrunner blew him up with TNT for the hundredth time. That news all by itself is odd enough, but here’s the follow-up story we didn’t see coming: a federal indictment unsealed recently states that Gonzalez allegedly helmed the heist of several Model Xs worth a total of $607,000. AP Images