Photo: YouTube/Bcba Basf

A Tesla owner is hoping someone can identify the suspect who keyed his car while it was parked in the Inner Sunset.

Sam Cho, a 33-year-old Oakland man, was having lunch with friends at a nearby restaurant Sunday when his white 2019 Tesla Model 3 was targeted.

The vandalism was recorded by the car's "sentry mode" cameras around 2:30 p.m., Cho said. The footage shows a man walking up to the car, parked at 10th Avenue and Irving Street, and gouging the passenger side of the vehicle with a key.

The man momentarily exits the frame but then appears again from the opposite direction. He again drags the key over the Tesla's doors.

When Cho returned to his car after lunch, one of his friends alerted him to the damage.

Cho said he has no idea why the man chose his car to vandalize.

"I have never seen that person ever in my life," he said.

Cho said he was legally parked in an unmetered part of the street and was careful not to block any driveways. He said the last thing he wants is to have his car towed in San Francisco.

Cho said he would be filing a report Monday with the San Francisco Police Department. He said his insurance company estimated the damage at $4.758.

Cars are keyed all the time, but there's usually little physical evidence for police to investigate. Model 3's, and newer Model S's and X's, solve this problem.

The Model 3's sentry mode feature allows the car owner to monitor suspicious activities around the Tesla when it's parked and locked in specified locations. The car has nine motion-activated cameras found in several strategic places.

In October, a woman in Broomfield, Colo., turned herself in after the owner of a Model 3 posted video captured by the car's cameras on his Facebook page. The footage, which received over 100,000 views, showed a woman carving a deep scratch across the side of his car.

Anyone with information related to the San Francisco vandalism is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 415-575-4444.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate