A California man says his Tesla Cybertruck locked itself with his 1-year-old son inside while he was charging the vehicle at a Supercharger station, forcing him to call the carmaker for a remote unlock as the cabin heated up fast.
Greg Gastelum, the truck’s owner, drove to a Supercharger with his son secured in a child seat in the back. He stepped out, closed the door, and plugged in the vehicle. When he returned, the doors wouldn’t open.
He shared the experience in the Cybertruck Owners Only group on Facebook.
“I had a scare at the Supercharger today. I parked, hopped out to plug in, and left my phone inside the car like I always do. My one-year-old son was strapped into his seat in the back. I shut the door, walked around to plug in, came back to jump in, and the truck had locked itself with my son inside.”
The situation quickly became urgent.
The truck was overheating. The boy was trapped inside, and there was no way to unlock it.
A stranger’s phone and a call to Tesla
The owner says the person charging next to him let him borrow his phone. He called the company, and it was able to unlock the truck remotely. The whole ordeal took several minutes, he said. By the time he got his child out, the boy was already covered in sweat.
“Thank God for my work. I’m trained to stay calm amidst chaos,” he wrote. “Someone charging next to me kindly let me borrow their phone so I could call Tesla. After a few minutes of verifying my Cybertruck details, they remotely unlocked the doors. Huge relief.”
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He added: “I was seconds away from breaking the rear window because the car was heating up fast, and when I got him out, he was already covered in sweat.”
Gastelum also posted a video from the truck’s sentry camera.
It shows him pacing back and forth next to the truck, talking on the phone. The man who lent him the phone stands nearby, looking worriedly through the windows.
It’s easy to forget that modern vehicles, especially fully digital ones like the truck, rely entirely on electronic keys and phone connectivity. A dead phone battery, a lost signal, or a simple software glitch can turn a routine stop into an emergency — a reality that’s different from the mechanical certainty of a physical key.
Fellow owners had questions
In the comments, several Cybertruck owners asked why he didn’t call his wife or a family member to unlock the truck remotely from their phone. Darren Le asked, and Dan Trickel pointed out that his wife had the app and could access the truck.
He responded that his wife is a nurse and was sleeping at home after a night shift. “I called my wife on the phone. The nice gentleman who lent me his phone allowed me to call her first, but she’s a nurse and was asleep because she just finished a night shift. I was planning to have her unlock it from my Apple Watch at home.”
Other owners recommended hiding a key card somewhere around the truck as a backup. Tory Riccardi wrote: “Hide one of your truck card keys under the truck.” Another owner, Alex Appelhans, suggested enabling a setting called “Phone Left Behind Chime.” He wrote: “When you walk away, it will alert you if you’ve left your phone behind, and the doors won’t lock. I have used it several times.”
He ended his post by saying his phone key seemed to disconnect, and he wondered if others had experienced similar issues.