Several people across the U.S. spent the week of Easter getting arrested on charges of attacking Tesla vehicles.
At least four suspects were accused of keying, spray painting or throwing explosives at Tesla cars, seemingly in protest of CEO Elon Musk’s role in President Donald Trump’s administration. The string of cases marks an intensifying trend against Tesla owners that the Department of Justice (DOJ) says has boiled over into “domestic terrorism.”
Court records show the DOJ charged 19-year-old Owen McIntire in Massachusetts with burning two Teslas worth more than $100,000 and two charging stations in March with a Molotov cocktail, an explosive device that has seen increased usage among left-wing demonstrators. McIntire is a Massachusetts student who allegedly committed the attack in Missouri while on spring break before authorities tracked him with flight records and GPS pings.
Days prior, the DOJ had also charged lipstick-wearing “queer” male scientist Jamison Wagner with firebombing a Tesla dealership and GOP headquarters in New Mexico. The DOJ said it found incendiary devices spray paint and a flammable chemicle belonging to Wagner at his residence.
“Let me be extremely clear to anyone who still wants to firebomb a Tesla property: you will not evade us,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Friday DOJ press release about the arrest of McIntire that day. “You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will spend decades behind bars. It is not worth it.”
An attorney for Wagner did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Court records do not list an attorney for McIntyre.
At the local level, Minnesota police announced at a Thursday press conference that they had arrested a Minneapolis resident the day prior for allegedly keying six Teslas across the city. The alleged vandal caused more than $21,000 in damage and could face felony charges, police said.
As in several other Tesla vandalism cases, the Minneapolis suspect appeared to be undeterred by the fact that Teslas come with cameras that automatically record human activity, footage shows. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara called Teslas “rolling surveillance vehicles” at the press briefing and asked “other people who may have been victimized to please come forward.”
O’Hara said the police will not disclose the suspect’s name until he or she is formally charged. The Hennepin County district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
Another man in Florida was arrested Thursday night and faces felony criminal mischief charges for allegedly keying three Teslas, causing more than $11,000 in damage, Bradenton police said on Facebook. The suspect’s bond was set to $150,000. County records do not yet list the suspect’s case or an attorney.
Trump’s federal law enforcement officials have formed a task force focused on finding and prosecuting those responsible for politically motivated attacks on Teslas, many of which are accused of arson. Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel call such attacks “domestic terrorism.”
“Crimes have consequences,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the Friday release. “The people behind these violent and dangerous attacks on private property will face decades in prison — we will not make deals and we will not negotiate.”
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