Suspected Pipe-Wielding Tesla Driver Arrested After Series of Road Rage Attacks
Victims are relieved he has finally been caught.
A Tesla driver who was on a one-man road rage spree across Southern California has finally been arrested. Nathaniel Radimak, 36, has been identified as the suspected pipe-wielding maniac who targeted women (and the men who helped them), attacking them on the freeway. Radimak became infamous for his deranged attacks on other drivers, at one point even giving a female victim a black eye. The out-of-control man reportedly slashed another woman's tires. After months of appeals for help, police finally tracked Radimak down—here's what we know so far.
Radimak became infamous following a reported string of attacks in the Los Angeles area. The incidents usually followed the same pattern where Radimak would allegedly force a car to a stop before getting out of his Tesla wielding a pipe, smashing the victims' cars, and sometimes physically assaulting them too. Radimak was arrested by California Highway Patrol officers on Sunday (January 29) at a car wash in Torrance before being booked into LAPD's 77th jail.
Radimak's 2022 Tesla Model X has been seized, and his bail is listed at $5.175 million. He is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon and two previous outstanding warrants. One of the car wash employees said they recognized the man immediately, but it's unclear if they are the ones who called the police.
There is widespread relief that Radimak has finally been apprehended. "Thankfully, he didn't kill somebody," a concerned driver told Eyewitness News. "When you have rage issues of that magnitude, it's frightening. Everybody's going to have to have their day in court, and it's almost like they have to get revictimized."
The victim who got her car tires slashed in West Hollywood says she is thankful for some closure. "For the past year, in part of my mind I thought: was there someone out to get me?" she says. "All these different accounts have been good to know that it wasn't me specifically." Another female victim says, "The why behind it … I don't know if it was a breakdown, or he was going through something more than that, I would like to know why."
The WeHo Times investigated Radimak's past and found this was not his first run-in with the law. They discovered two vandalism charges in 2017, possession for sales of meth in 2021, and two allegations of domestic violence in 2022.
