Depending on where you look, it is a bad time to be a Tesla owner.

As the electric vehicle manufacturer’s CEO, Elon Musk, continues his politically divisive slashing of the federal bureaucracy, a protest movement against the billionaire and his company is growing with members of the political left.

Tesla dealerships nationwide have become the site of anti-Musk demonstrations in recent weeks, while police reports of vandalized Tesla vehicles are surging.

The damages range from gunshots to fires, scratches to crude gestures leveled at drivers. Blowback has been strong enough that in Washington, D.C., it is now considered a hate crime to deface one of Musk’s cars.

The Philadelphia region is no exception to the tension, and one recent incident — in which a Bucks County man allegedly keyed a swastika into the side of a Tesla SUV — set local social media circles ablaze this week.

In what’s become a feature of the polarized political climate, the online outrage cycle ended with social media vigilantes identifying the suspect before police even filed charges.

And in the case of Teslas, the vehicle’s onboard cameras that record almost constantly are providing keyboard warriors and law enforcement alike with an up-close look at the mounting cases of vandalism.

On Thursday, the Central Bucks Regional Police Department issued an arrest warrant for 55-year-old Chadd Ritenbaugh, charging him with two misdemeanors and two summary offenses for damaging property, harassment, and disorderly conduct in the Monday incident.

Footage captured by the Tesla’s side camera in a Planet Fitness parking lot that morning shows a man police say is Ritenbaugh exit a gray Lexus, duck behind the vehicle, and scratch the neighboring car with an “unknown” object before walking out of frame.

The Tesla’s owner later left the gym to find “what appeared to be scratches in the shape of a swastika” on the side of the vehicle, according to court documents.

When reached for comment, Ritenbaugh directed The Inquirer to his defense attorney, Paul Lang.

“My client is a proud father, longtime resident, and is currently undergoing cancer treatment,” Lang said in a text message. “We will reserve further comment pending the outcome of the case.”

It didn’t take long for the incident to bubble over into politics.

Days before police sought Ritenbaugh’s arrest — identifying him through security footage and his Planet Fitness membership — fans of Musk, online MAGA supporters, even local Republican officials had taken to plastering Ritenbaugh across social media.

“As we have all seen on the news, the far left has been attacking Tesla owners, and we all though(t) ‘that sort of thing can’t happen here’,” the Doylestown Republican Committee wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday that included the Ritenbaugh footage.

Doylestown Republicans went on to blame Ritenbaugh’s behavior on local Democrats in the upscale Bucks County community.

In a statement, Connor O’Hanlon, chair of the Doylestown Democrats, said the group wholly denounces the destruction of private property and has never encouraged vandalism.

“We have participated in and will continue participating in and promoting peaceful and lawful protests and demonstrations, including those held in front of Tesla dealerships,” O’Hanlon said.

Elsewhere, users found a selfie of Ritenbaugh that appeared to be pulled from his profile, circulating the image in neighborhood Facebook groups in an effort to expose him.

Some went as far as trying to link the vandalism to the fact that Doylestown Democrats had advertised the Mar. 22 protest of a Warminster Tesla dealership on the site.

The Doylestown incident wasn’t the only report of Tesla vandalism in Bucks County this week.

On Sunday, police in Newtown Township accused four teenagers of vandalizing a luxury Tesla Cybertruck, saying the vehicle’s cameras caught one juvenile dragging an object along the side of the car, leaving a mark.

Is protesting Musk and Tesla the same thing as vandalizing one of his vehicles?

Adam Sheridan, a progressive New Jersey activist who organized a recent Tesla dealership protest in Cherry Hill, believes there’s a difference.

“There’s been a real effort to conflate vandalism with protests, and they really don’t have anything to do with each other,” said Sheridan, who estimates the Cherry Hill protest had around 600 attendees and no report of crime. “We explicitly tell people not to vandalize things.”

Sheridan said the protest group has sympathy for Tesla drivers, including those who are working class and may be unable to immediately sell their vehicle despite their political views not aligning with Musk and Trump.

Of the anger surrounding the Doylestown incident, “I think this is a distraction that is part of a coordinated campaign to draw attention away from the fact that Elon Musk’s role in the government is something people are really upset about,” Sheridan said.

Musk’s supporters don’t see it that way. Meanwhile, the fervor over Tesla is unlikely to simmer anytime soon.

More than 200 “Tesla Takedown” protests are planned across the country this weekend, in what organizers are calling a “global day of action” for those who oppose Musk’s role as overseer of the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

In turn, some Musk fans have pushed for counterprotesters to organize Tesla “shield” events at those same dealerships, accusing anti-Musk activists of “domestic and economic” terrorism.

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