The trials of a billionaire Bond villain: Oculus founder Palmer Luckey sues after getting stuck in a car elevator in the mansion he bought just to store cars

Palmer Luckey, the billionaire founder of VR firm Oculus and weapons firm Anduril, has filed a lawsuit against the construction company he hired to turn a house into a massive garage for all his fancy cars (as first reported by Forbes). Luckey lives in a $12.5 million mansion in Newport Beach, California and his interests include collecting classic cars. Like any insanely rich kid with an extensive Hot Wheels collection, Luckey wanted an Ultimate Mega Garage, and so purchased the property opposite his own as a conversion project (for a mere $3.8 million).

This conversion was on a somewhat larger scale than a fresh lick of paint and a few new doors. A $2.5 million rebuild saw all 7,000 square feet of the building renovated, with over 1,000 square feet across multiple floors given over to showcasing cars: with four dedicated car elevators installed to take vehicles across floors and to the roof, alongside a central and circular passenger elevator. The kind of $6.3 million show-off showpiece, in other words, where you can quite easily imagine Luckey stroking a gleaming Ford Mustang while delivering a monologue to some slightly bored guests.

That was the dream, anyway. Things turned sour between Luckey and the contractors when the billionaire got stuck in one of the elevators.

Luckey has filed suit in the Superior Court of California County of Orange against both the elevator contractor and the construction company, in which he alleges that the four car lifts and the passenger elevator are faulty and have trapped multiple occupants. The suit says "the passenger elevator and the scissor lifts installed…at the residence have never functioned properly. Amongst other things, the elevator has repeatedly stopped its vertical motion without warning and trapped its occupants inside."

As well as alleging that the lifts are unsafe, the suit claims they operate too slowly. Finally, it says the contract specified the lifts be "handcrafted", but in reality were ordered online from a Chinese manufacturer.

The elevator contractor Custom Cabs said in a statement it "denies all of Palmer’s allegations and since receiving his complaint filed a motion to strike their claims." The  construction company WT Durant said via attorney it had fulfilled its contract with this property and any issues related to Custom Cabs. The building was signed off as complete by inspectors in August 2023. 

Custom Cabs should have some knowledge of the alleged issues, because Luckey's lawyer says they once got trapped in there with him. "The passenger elevator stopped mid-lift with Mr. Luckey and the elevator contractor trapped inside for over ten minutes," David Peck told Forbes, who went on to emphasise that the lifts are the whole point of the conversion. "These lifts were the central feature of the residence to move the vehicles around to the multiple levels where they will be parked....That is the whole purpose of the house."

Luckey made his fortune by founding Oculus in 2012, which he sold to Facebook (now Meta) for $2 billion. In 2016 Luckey was fired by Facebook, and in 2017 he co-founded Anduril, a weapons company focusing on autonomous drones. A new funding round in May valued the company at $14 billion.

Luckey's car collection is extensive. Per a Bloomberg report, one of the jewels is a 1967 Disneyland Autopia car, a vehicle designed by Bob Gurr and Walt Disney for the theme parks. "As far as I know, mine is the only complete Autopia that is outside of the parks," said Luckey. "Mine has the original mechanicals, original gearboxes, original wheels, the whole deal." Other vehicles include a 1969 Ford Mustang, while his daily ride is a Tesla Model S.

But why stop with cars? Luckey also collects military vehicles, including a Mark V Special Operations Craft bought from the US Navy, the fastest boat ever built by the service which comes complete with an M2 heavy-barrelled 50 BMG machine gun (he says he keeps a fake one fitted "most of the time"). Luckey also has a 1985 ex-Marine Corps Humvee, alongside six helicopters including a UH-60 Black Hawk. Hell, he's probably bought a few Land Rovers as I was typing this.

That's not to mention the 6,500-gallon aquarium, and of course one of the world's largest collection of videogames which is kept, per Luckey, "in one of my missile bases, 200 feet underground." I'm really not sure whether that's a bit, or Luckey does have a decommissioned missile base stuffed with old arcade cabs.  "I am a little bit of a caricature," Luckey has said, neglecting only to add "but then so are you, Mr Bond."