Local and federal police are investigating after someone damaged a Tesla electric vehicle charging station in a shopping mall parking lot in Lacey overnight Tuesday.
FBI investigators are gathering "the evidence they need to figure out exactly what happened," said Steve Bernd, a spokesperson for Seattle's FBI office. "I don't think we know yet."
Multiple people called 911 to report hearing a loud noise near the Target at South Sound Center off of Sleater Kinney Road Southeast and Pacific Avenue Southeast shortly after 1:30 a.m., the Lacey Police Department wrote on X.
Pieces of the charging station appeared scorched and ripped away in a photo shared online by Lacey police.
People have targeted Tesla cars, dealerships and charging stations in recent months in apparent protest of Musk, who Trump tapped to oversee the administration's new Department of Government Efficiency. Last month, someone allegedly poured gasoline on a Tesla Model S and lit it on fire in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and a Tesla showroom was sprayed with bullets in the Portland suburb of Tigard.
Lacey police asked anyone with information about Tuesday's incident to contact the FBI's Seattle office.
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