A parade of destruction and torched Teslas on the streets and at dealerships across the nation prompted an alert from the FBI over the weekend.
The feds said the public should be on the look out after “recent nationwide incidents” involving the electric car company, including at “dealerships, storage lots, and charging stations.”
“Since January 2025, incidents targeting Tesla EVs have occurred in at least nine states,” the bureau wrote.
Authorities in Austin, Texas, were investigating several incendiary devices found at a Tesla dealership Monday on the city’s north side, the latest in a series of events targeting the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk.
Austin police responding to a report of hazardous materials found the devices and called in the city’s bomb squad, which took them into police custody without incident, the department said in an email to The Associated Press. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk’s electric-car company are cropping up across the U.S. and overseas, along with protests nationwide in response to the billionaire’s work with the Trump administration cutting federal funding and the workforce.
On Saturday, a man drove his car into protesters outside a Tesla dealership in Palm Beach County, Florida. No one was injured, and the man was arrested on an assault complaint. In California, police said a counter-protestor was arrested Saturday after activating a stun gun during an anti-Musk demonstration outside a Tesla dealership near downtown Berkeley. Nobody was hurt.
Several more cases of violence targeting Tesla include Cybertrucks being set on fire in Seattle and shots fired at a dealership in Oregon. Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars also have been targeted. Several incidents in Massachusetts included an arrest in Brookline after Teslas were tagged in with anti-Elon Musk stickers. Separately, a man in Lowell, Mass., told police he was shot at while driving his Tesla along Jackson Street.
The FBI said residents across the country are advised to “exercise vigilance” and to stay on the “look out for suspicious activity” when in proximity to a Tesla dealership or “Tesla-related entities.”
Potential “threat activity” includes violent online threats made against “specific Tesla properties,” criminal actors inquiring about or attempting to examine security at Tesla properties or taking video or photos there, any “unusual surveillance or interest in Tesla-related entities,” and attempts to gain unauthorized access to Tesla facilities, the FBI said.
The FBI’s warning comes after attorney General Pam Bondi said she’d opened an investigation “to see how is this being funded, who is behind this.”
“If you’re going to touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, do anything, you better watch out because we’re coming after you,” Bondi said Friday on Fox Business Network.
The increased violence follows Trump’s inauguration and the elevation of Musk to oversee the Department of Government Efficiency that has announced a series of dramatic cuts at agencies across the federal bureaucracy.
Trump also said that crimes against the Tesla brand should be treated as acts of domestic terrorism.
The violence does not appear to be part of a coordinated effort or the actions of an organized group, according to the FBI.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
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