If there’s one community I know that can identify a car using only a blurry set of pixels from security camera footage, it’s the people who read The Autopian. This set of readers has done it before (on multiple occasions).
Once again, the police need our help. The Tewksbury Police Department in Massachusetts is seeking the public’s assistance in trying to identify the driver of a dark SUV that allegedly intentionally ran over a flock of seagulls in a parking lot, killing six.
All the police have to go on is a 20-second slice of security footage of the car driving through the lot, and it’s shot from pretty far away. Do you know what kind of car this is?
Here’s What We Know
The incident happened around noon Eastern time on Thursday, December 11. Police were called at 12:06 p.m. to 1777 Main Street in Tewksbury, which, according to Google Maps, is a strip mall with stores like an Advance Auto Parts, a Dollar Tree, a beauty salon, a cafe, and a hardware store.
Footage shot from the strip mall and published by police (above) shows the SUV driving through the flock of seagulls before crossing the rest of the lot and exiting the frame. It’s only towards the last few seconds do we get a clear view of the car.
When I spoke to a department representative over the phone, they told me they hadn’t yet identified the make or model. Their initial investigation determined that the car “accelerated before driving through the flock.”
I Have My Guesses
From the jump, it feels like we’re looking at a semi-modern SUV or crossover. Going by the general proportions, maybe a mid-sizer. The big headlights and badge suggest it might be something American, like a Chevrolet Traverse or a Ford Explorer, though there are a few Hondas that cross my mind, like the Passport or Pilot, too.
As far as security footage goes, this is par for the course. But we do get a great look at the car’s profile, greenhouse shape, wheels, grille, and more. I’m actually pretty disappointed in myself that I can’t pick this car out immediately.
This incident was brought to my attention via a reader who spends a lot of time in the parking lot where this incident allegedly happened, so I’m extra-motivated to get to the bottom of this. Here’s what they said in their email:
Nearly every morning I sit in that very parking lot with my coffee, reading The Autopian. Sometimes I even buy unsalted snacks for the flock of seagulls that gather there. This morning, I noticed something unusual—the birds were perched on top of a nearby restaurant instead of their usual spot on the pavement. I snapped a photo. Ten minutes later, I read that someone had driven through them, killing six.
As both an animal lover and a car enthusiast, I feel compelled to help. I believe this is one of those moments where Autopian justice should prevail. The community here is incredible at analyzing details, and I’m hoping you can lend your eyes and expertise to help identify the driver responsible.
I’m confident this community will have no trouble figuring out what kind of vehicle did this. There’s no place on the internet more knowledgeable when it comes to cars than this website’s comment section, after all. So have at it.
Top graphic image: Tewksbury Police Department
I believe it’s a ’22 Honda Passport.
Theme music…and I ran, I ran so far awayeeeayy!
Me sitting down at my desk, holding a cup of coffee…
Hey guys, what did I miss?
*scans through comment section*
Yike-see-ola
Clear as day, that is a 2019ish Honda Passport.
I happen to like seagulls, and enjoy seeing them around where I live near Lake Michigan.
I’ve only ever killed one bird with a car. Sucked a small finch of some sort into the giant hood scoop on my old 04 STi on a road trip. I was sad to see that I cooked the little guy on my intercooler upon popping my hood to check the oil a few days later.
I’m not going to shame anyone confused in the comments because gulls are disgusting, disease-ridden, overly-abundant nuisances. Pearl clutching and virtue signalling doesn’t really help anything. The problem is not thinning out the gull population. The problem is the methodology. Rats are worse. I’ve killed my fair share of rats and their ilk. I still wouldn’t swerve my car to run them over. Cars shouldn’t be used to deliberately take the life of anything or anyone, barring an emergency.
Would you swerve your car to not run them over? Let’s say in the middle Of a 45mph arterial.
Only if I somehow had enough time to calculate whether or not it was reasonably safe for myself and/or others to do so. Short answer, probably not. As others have pointed out it’s one thing to hit animals unavoidably, but unsavory to do so deliberately.
I’m pretty disappointed at some of the comments on this. I love birds but despise seagulls. Doesn’t mean they should be killed for existing. That’s just psychopathic in the same vein as people deliberately running over dogs, cats, turtles, or any other animal crossing the road or walking on the shoulder.
that said, I really think it’s a last gen explorer. What’s messing with me is that it looks stretched… almost like the image is skewed
Yeah, it’s one thing if you’re on a 2-lane road and can’t swerve or stop in time. But deliberate actions like this (as much as I detest seagulls and pigeons) is really a strong precursor to other sociopathies — or worse. It’s not about the seagulls entirely, it’s about what we are willing to accept as a society. As far as aggressive and desensitized vehicular behavior, this is only a few notches away from running over other living things.Also, who’s gonna clean this up?
The seagulls will clean it up.
That vehicle is a Ford Explorer all day long, last generation.
it could be a police interceptor
Once they caught, they should be required to clean and eat all the birds they killed.
Don’t let them go to waste at least.
It’s a 2016 or 2017 Ford Explorer Sport.
The way the front bumper slopes forward only matches this generation explorer and only the 16-17 sport trim has fog lights that match
2021 Passport for sure
After this photo they ran. Ran so far away. They couldn’t get away.
Was looking for this comment.
Seagulls are really just a nuisance. Especially where there is an overpopulation of them. My friends used to call them rats with wings.
Back when I was young, I had friends that used to accelerate through flocks of them all the time. I never did it, but we also heard about people feeding them Alka-Seltzer™.
I even had a co-worker who would get an extra order of french fries just to throw them in front of the rental car after we backed out of the parking spot into the lane of traffic. As the gulls flocked towards the greasy, salty fries, he would floor it through them.
I don’t think he ever hit one of them, as they were always too quick for him.
He said it was worth the 59¢ just for the chance.
The only bird I ever hit with my car was a huge black crow. (raven) It was standing in the middle of my lane when I was going 60. I waited for it to fly away as I approached, but just before I got to it, it still hadn’t moved so I crossed over into the other lane to avoid running it over… And it took off and flew right into my front bumper. There were black feathers everywhere.
I wonder if there actual laws making it illegal to run over birds on the pavement anywhere.
The fact that police are looking for the driver doesn’t make it obvious for you that there are laws against this?
“The fact that police are looking for the driver doesn’t make it obvious for you that there are laws against this?”
No, it doesn’t. Is there a law against running over birds standing on pavement?
Or just for speeding and/or reckless driving.
I was just wondering if there were specific laws in specific areas against hitting birds with your vehicle. Where I live, people hit and kill hundreds of whitetail deer with their vehicles every year, but since deer are generally stupid animals, there are no specific laws against this in my state.
Opinions may differ, but I disapprove of needless cruelty to living creatures of any kind. Birds should suffer to amuse a driver for a few seconds?
Accidentally hitting an animal and intentionally plowing through a bunch of them are not the same thing, and animal cruelty laws do exist in most of the world.
According to the article,
Other reporting on the subject mentions only the killing of the seagulls, I found nothing about speeding/reckless driving.
Deer are quite smart at being deer.
Not so good dealing with traffic, especially when younger.
Game laws would apply in my state, as well as animal cruelty laws, depending.
That’s if you survived hitting the deer.
I posted a pic of a deer that wears a collar on my lane, on discord when I could still access it.
She goes by Penny.
They’re looking for the driver in hopes that it wasn’t one of their own in that obvious cop-spec Explorer. They’re trying to head the social media blowback off at the pass. The fact that they’re no longer looking tells me it was one of theirs.
I didn’t interpret it to be illegal, just more of an effort to socially shame someone (an increasingly popular tactic), or at least find them and urge them into mental health treatments.
Since it’s eastern Mass, I assume it’s the first one. “Hey get a load of this f*cking guy! BIG MAN running over little birds, you feel tough? Also here are some pamphlets about treatments you might want to consider when you’re ready to get the f*ck out of your mom’s basement, ya loser!”
And I imagine all the cops are wearing Red Sox caps just because.
You have more faith in law enforcement being proactive than I do. I’m not seeing how they would do anything about this if they didn’t really have to. Totally with you on their shaming tactics, but I would guess they’d only use them when laws have been broken. But I don’t know, maybe you’re right.
Not sure if it’s a specific car law, but gulls are federally protected under the migratory bird act.
Not to put too fine a point on it but…could you save everyone some time here and share which dark 7-seat crossover you drive?
Sorry, I’ve never driven a dark 7-seat crossover.
And I’ve never intentionally tried to run over birds.
I’ve had friends and coworkers who have back when I was much younger.
I just asked a question about a law I hadn’t heard about. No need to assume I’m an insensitive jerk or don’t love animals.
But you have to admit that birds can be a nuisance sometimes, especially if they crap on someone’s car.
Against the law where I live.
There’s a special place in hell for those who abuse, hurt animals…
The grille and badge looked Ford… but the size/shape of the headlights look like Honda. Maybe a 2018 or 2019 Passport when they still had the sloped grille? I am seeing others have said the same thing.
That said, two details are stumping me:
First is how uniformly flat the roof-line looks. On a Passport, I would expect to be able to detect a bit of a rounded slope from front to rear, and I’m not seeing that here. Although that may just be a byproduct of the image itself being low resolution.
Second, is from 0:17 to 0:19 in the video (watch it full-screen in the better resolution) there appears to be a distinguishing mark over the rear wheel arch. Although, now that I’m looking at pictures of a 2019 Passport, that might just be the sun glinting off the hip bulge.
The ground clearance seems low for most SUVs. That is messing with me.
The number of comments condoning this kind of behavior is sad and disturbing.
I’m speechless. Apparently animals are now capable of psychopathic behaviour. There’s something really messed up about the thought process of someone who sees this and empathises with the driver but calls seagulls ‘psychopaths’. But going online and publicly stating this and doubling down with each comment is just batshit.
This…
I truly expected better from those commenters.
Really sad examples of humans?
YMMV.
But no need to be a turd or joke about being cruel.
Oh, me?
Hell with a seagull.
Also, what this man did was wrong, and he should be punished.
Grieving for the seagulls is optional.
I get that seagulls are a nuissance, and I don’t like being around them. I totally agree with culling populations in areas where they’ve become problematic.
I won’t cheer or this or align myself with anyone who runs over any kind of defenseless/harmless animal intentionally, for very questionable shits and giggles. But you do you.
Not grieving for seagulls my dude, but for hope in humanity? Totally grieving a bit.
I’m not a vegeterian so I do eat animals. I also have no problem with stores and restaurants trapping rodents so that our food supplies can be disease free. I have relatives that hunt and eat animals. I don’t think is killing animals for fun acceptable behavior. There is more than enough accidents, tragedy and death in this world and no need add to the cruelty for no reason. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It doesn’t cost us anything to be humane to living creatures.
Yup, that’s it. There are some reasons why we kill animals that are at least justifiable (pest control and feeding humans/other animals at the top), but this is nothing of the sort. I don’t even know how to qualify this behaviour; it’s dumb, ridicuous and revolting. I like animals but I’m not an animal rights extremist; I understand hunting for subsistence or to control overpopulation (as long as it isn’t made into a degrading spectacle of animal torture for the upper class, like fox hunting in the UK). I’m fine with eating most animals that are historically part of the human diet and aren’t endangered. I’m not fine with this kind of behaviour.
Clearly they have never seen “The Lighthouse”.
It’s bad luck to kill a sea bird
On the other hand, the number of people misinterpreting a quite rational loathing of seagulls for condoning this behavior? No surprise at all.
“You can take a man’s dignity, you can take his job security but YOU! DO! NOT! SH*T ON HIS MOTHERF**KIN’ WINDSHIELD!”
“WE HAD A DEAL!”
-George Costanza
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/12/12/tewksbury-police-seeking-driver-who-allegedly-mowed-down-seagulls/
Nissan Rogue? Look at the V-shape on the grille and the bright lower fascia.
The photo in this article you shared is much better than the video footage, and it definitely looks like a 2021-22 Rogue. But are we 100% sure these are the same vehicles? The headlights seem very different in the video footage.
I think you are looking at the wrong vehicle in that photo (which appears to just be a screenshot of the video from the 8-sec timestamp). The dark blue Rogue is in the foreground parked between the white and red cars, but if you look in the background, you see the blurry black blob driving through a flock of seagulls.
FWIW I agree with those who are saying previous gen Honda Passport.
oh nevermind, you’re absolutely right.
the perpetrator’s car is far in the background in the photo attached on that article. the rogue is parked and has nothing to do with it
Yeah, I noticed that later on.
My instincts are saying Honda Passport.
I was goddamn sure that was an explorer. It’s a Honda passport.
Anyone who has kept chickens knows that killing a chicken is a mitzvah. And I have shecket quite a few chickens.
But they were my chickens. And I didn’t maim them and leave them for the rest of the chickens (seagulls) to peck to death and then eat.
Personally, I’m going to put this in the category of third degree dumbass.
Humans are a funny bunch. We know a guy is a psycho when he does this. We also eat a shit load of chickens.
To be fair, I think if someone intentionally drove their SUV over a bunch of chickens, we would still identify them as psycho.
This is the correct answer.
This kind of makes my point. The guy working in a slaughter house kills like 6000 birds a day. My plate of 20 wings killed, if my math is correct, 10 birds.
We have an amazing ability to classify the very same actions, or worse, completely differently.
If it’s the idea that the guy “enjoyed it” that makes him nuts does that mean I need to hate my chicken wings? Should the guys at Tysons all get therapy?
So I guess in the end it’s not what you do, but the way you do it?
I can’t tell if you’re trying to make a point about meat-eating/the meat industry, or if you’re trying way too hard to be deep.
Soldiers who have killed dozens of humans can be considered heroes (or at least, not considered “nuts” for having done so), while many people who are considered terrible murderers only killed one person.
So yes, we classify “the same actions” in very different ways depending on context.
My point is that we can prompted into righteous anger over an action that, when examined for just its specifics, is hardly different from what we accept readily.
Note that I did say I’m eating those wings too, so I’m not separating myself from this.
I’m not sure that examining how we are triggered by emotion vs objective truth is being “too deep”. If so people are free to totally ignore me.
This story made me hungry for chicken. Just got back from the supermarket.
Firstly the driver is a top notch a-hole, but as rambled in the Discord, my first guess is a 2018-2021 Honda Passport and my distant second guess would be a 2016-2019 Explorer.
Reasons mostly stemming from the shape of the bumper lights; the 22-24 Passport facelift making the front too upright and square to match the security footage; and the presumed lack of a roof rack which is generally on Explorers (minus police vehicles), although the last bit may be lost in the 4K ultra HD compression.
Replying to boost this, and I agree. 2011-ish Explorer was my first thought, but took the image into Photoshop to un-distort it and compared pics of Explorer and Passport. The way light is catching the grille badge, for lights, and the lack of giant amber stripe on the headlights tells me Passport as well.
Side note: man I wish I could put images in comments…
All the possibilities are so damn ubiquitous that it means nothing without a license plate number.
losing hope in this community’s collective car-identifying prowess. that’s a honda passport, not a ford explorer
Prior gen Ford Explorer. The video is slightly distorted which might throw people off on the shape. The big assed Ford logo in the middle of the grill is the dead giveaway.
This, the grille badge is undoubtedly Ford.
Maybe it’s the wrong article I looked at but in another photo the vehicle looks like a blue Nissan SUV.I originally thought an Explorer but if I’m at the right place it’s a blue Nissan something.I searched Tewksbury Mass. seagulls and it came up.Maybe I’m looking at the wrong news article but there is a clearer photo.