‘Living in fear’: Tesla abuse has officially spiralled out of control
A Tesla user has spoken out after her car was attacked as the backlash against Elon Musk’s car brand gets even wilder.
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Rising protests against Elon Musk and his Tesla brand across the US have had a human cost with one woman revealing how she is “living in fear” after her car was attacked.
Last week, a man in a four-wheel ATV crashed into the side of Virita Carstaffin’s red Tesla which was sitting in a carpark in Texas.
Footage showed 33-year-old Demarqeyun Marquize Cox ramming into the Tesla’s front driver-side door which was parked outside a Chinese restaurant Carstaffin was visiting.
“I was stunned. I was upset,” she told Fox & Friends Weekend.
“He did quite a bit (of damage). I estimate it so far to be between $2700 and $3500.”
Cox was arrested by Texas police after other Teslas in the area had been damaged in the bizarre hit-and-run spree, the New York Post reported.
He had also reportedly carved “Elon” into the side of another two cars.
The suspect was charged with criminal mischief resulting in damage of between $2500 and $30,000, as well as failure to identify after he allegedly claimed to be a different person and provided a false name during his interrogation with police, The Post added.
Carstaffin said the incident left her fearing driving her Tesla “every day, every second”.
“It’s very horrible to know that you’re either shopping or eating as I was, and you come out to see that your vehicle has been terrorised,” Carstaffin said.
“The innocent bystanders that own these vehicles shouldn’t be (hurt) by other people’s feelings with politics.
“This is my dream car, so it’s like one of my kids. I love my car just like I love my kids. And when it was harmed, it really touched me … I worked really hard for this, and for somebody to do what they did is very hurtful.”
The incident is one of many as demonstrators descended on Tesla dealerships across the United States, Europe and Canada to protest company chief Elon Musk.
Waving signs with messages like “Musk is stealing our money” and “reclaim our country”, the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Teslas in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as “terrorism”.
Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is dramatically slashing the federal government.
Amy Neifeld, a 70-year-old psychologist who had not joined a protest since marching against the Vietnam War in the 1970s, accused Musk of leading the country toward fascism.
“I’m Jewish, so I grew up with a great awareness of fascism,” she told AFP. “And it has just gotten uglier and uglier” since Trump returned to the White House.
“He acts like he’s the vice president,” said New York protester Eva Mueller of Musk. “He’s dismantling, actively, our government, he’s dismantling our democracy.”
Acts of vandalism against Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities have spread for weeks, in protest both against Musk’s ruthless job-cutting work, and what has been seen as his unwelcome interference in politics.
US Attorney-General Pam Bondi has denounced the attacks on Tesla as “domestic terrorism”.
Musk himself has hit back at the protests, writing on X: “Who is funding and organising all these paid protests?” along with a video clip of Joe Rogan discussing the protests.
Conservative critics have also alleged that the recent protests are “astroturfing”, which is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a campaign “falsely made to appear grassroots”.
Former Wall Street Journal correspondent Asra Nomani was one of those alleging a co-ordinated attack and posted to X: “I know when something is AstroTurf. Fun fact: I was among the first reporters (if not first) to put the concept of ‘Astro Turf’ lobbying into the pages of the Wall Street Journal as an international trade reporter.
“While local #TeslaTakedown protests may appear spontaneous and community-driven, they are the product of well-funded, tightly co-ordinated campaigns led by national political organisations like the Indivisible Project, http://MoveOn.org, and professional protest firms,” Nomani alleged.
Musk himself has been alleging an astroturfing campaign, taking to his X platform to write: “Based on the videos I’ve seen so far, the worst fear of the paid Tesla “protesters” appears to be having to get a real job.”
With Fox News and AFP
Originally published as ‘Living in fear’: Tesla abuse has officially spiralled out of control
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