The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department will soon be receiving 10 Tesla Cybertrucks, according to a new report from local news outlet KLAS. And while the donor of the Tesla vehicles is anonymous, there’s widespread speculation they could be from Ben Horowitz, a venture capitalist who’s previously given Las Vegas police money to purchase high-tech gifts.
Images of the Cybertrucks were posted to X on Tuesday by Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who wrote, “These are badass.” McMahill also included tweets in his thread about new rollouts of technology like drones and the highly controversial shot-spotters.
KLAS reports the Cybertrucks were donated before the New Year’s Day explosion at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, though it’s not clear why they would point out that fact. The incident involved an exploding Cybertruck rigged by a veteran who clearly wanted to make a statement with his suicide and there’s no evidence the truck just randomly exploded. But McMahill had praise for the Cybertruck at the time.
“The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast. Up through the truck and out. You’ll see that the front glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken by that blast which they were parked directly in front of,” McMahill said.
#BREAKING LVMPD announces we will soon have an initial fleet of #Cybertrucks
These are badass pic.twitter.com/nAGjQSU1Je— Kevin McMahill (@Sheriff_LVMPD) February 25, 2025
KLAS notes the Cybertrucks were donated by someone anonymously but there’s reason to believe they could be tied to Ben Horowitz, of Andreessen Horowitz fame. In 2023, Horowitz sent money to Las Vegas police to purchase Skydio drones and helped fund the department’s gym, according to reporting from Techcrunch.
Why give Cybertrucks? That part is unclear. Horowitz appears to support the police, so it’s odd that he would choose to give law enforcement officers in Las Vegas ten vehicles fit only for clowns. Obviously, there are a handful of children who seem to think the Cybertruck is cool, but adults widely regard the trucks as not just ridiculous in appearance but as a symbol of Donald Trump’s fascist hate movement.
Cybertrucks are regularly vandalized with swastikas ever since Musk made two Nazi-style salutes the day Trump was inaugurated. And message boards regularly fill up with stories of people who are tired of being ridiculed for driving such a stupid truck. But maybe Horowitz secretly hates the police and this is part of some long con to make people in Las Vegas point and laugh every time they see cops coming. We’ll never know for sure.
All that said, there are a handful of police departments that have Cybertrucks, though mostly for show rather than actual police work. For example, police in Irvine, California acquired a Cybertruck last summer for its DARE program. Believe it or not, DARE is still a thing. As we were saying, these things are not to be taken seriously.