The Austin Police Department shared on Monday that devices deemed to be “incendiary” were found in a Tesla showroom in the city as attacks against the electric vehicle maker continue across the country.
Officers with the department responded to a call about a suspicious package at the showroom at around 8 a.m. on Monday. The bomb squad was later called to investigate, and the department shared that the devices found were “determined to be incendiary.”
The department shared that the devices were taken without incident.
This isn’t the first act taken against Tesla this year. Last week, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department found at least five Teslas that had been damaged by fire and gunshots at a Tesla Collision Center. The word “RESIST” was also spray painted in capital letters on the center’s front doors.
The Associated Press also recently reported that an Oregon man was arrested after being accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem.
Musk has responded to the violence, sharing that things are getting out of hand on his social media site X.
“This level of violence is insane and deeply wrong,” Musk wrote on X. “Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks.”
While this is the first act of violence outside the Austin showroom, there have been numerous protests throughout the last two weeks. Those protests did not feature any acts of violence.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed the Justice Department to investigate the ongoing violence, saying last week that the “swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism.”
A spokesperson for the FBI confirmed that it is investigating the latest incident, along with the others. The FBI also recommended the public read its PSA that warns to “exercise vigilance and to look out for suspicious activity in areas occupied by Tesla dealerships or Tesla-related entities.”
The investigation into the Austin showroom incident remains ongoing at this point.