San Jose police say they arrested a man who was seen allegedly keying a Tesla in a viral video.
The video was taken in the parking lot of the Costco in South San Jose last week.
In the video, a man was seen wearing a jacket featuring the American flag. The camera on the Tesla captured him pulling out a key and scratching the car.
San Jose police said they made an arrest in the case and SJPD Chief Paul Joseph is urging people to respect each other and the law, regardless of their feelings or beliefs.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan echoed the call on social media site X and said that anything hurting Tesla owners in the city won't affect Elon Musk over in Washington. Mahan released the following statement on social media:
Keying a car because you don’t like the person who designed it is like breaking a clock because you don’t like the time it shows. If this crime was politically motivated, our residents can’t be held accountable for something Elon Musk is doing 3,000 miles away. I want to thank… https://t.co/moNtryo3Z7
— Mayor Matt Mahan (@MattMahanSJ) March 18, 2025
Musk himself reacted on X, reposting with an American flag. In other posts, he's compared the Tesla vandalism to domestic terrorism.
The San Jose Tesla incident is one of several recent vandalisms to Teslas and the incidents are getting a warning from the U.S. Attorney General. In Las Vegas on Tuesday, a person armed with a gun and Molotov cocktails launched a "targeted attack" against a Tesla location, spray-painting "resist," firing several shots and torching multiple cars, authorities said.
Jocelyn Moran has the full report in the video above.
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