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Over the past week the Arcata Police Department has received four separate reports from local Tesla owners who found threatening notes left on their vehicles.

Arcata Police Sgt. Heidi Grossman told the Outpost that the first report came in on Wednesday, Feb. 5, and three more reports were submitted over the next two days. One Tesla owner reported that he found a note on his car on Friday, Feb. 7 but said it could have been left there on any of the three previous days, since he hadn’t driven his car during that period.

Today, the Outpost received an envelope in the mail with three pages inside. The first page, a note addressed to Lost Coast Output [sic] editors, took credit for the threats, saying 10 students in Arcata and Seaside (in Monterey County) delivered written warnings to 13 Tesla owners. The note was signed by SANE, Students Against Nazi Extremism. It had no return address.

The other two pages in the envelope contain a manifesto, of sorts, and plan of attack. It calls Tesla CEO Elon Musk “an overt Nazi with a history of fascist, racist, misogynist and criminal behavior” and describes a plan to “inflict physical damage to Tesla-branded vehicles” over the next month or so.

The plan described in the document is to begin vandalizing Teslas on Feb. 12 in Arcata, Rohnert Park, Seaside and Hayward — all cities with California State University campuses. 

The goal of these actions, according to the document, is to “create enough shame to make it onerous for anyone to buy or operate a Tesla-branded vehicle.”

Sgt. Chase Carpenter with Cal Poly Humboldt’s University Police Department said the agency hasn’t received any reports regarding such threatening notes or the Students Against Nazi Extremism. 

APD Sgt. Grossman said protecting the community is her agency’s top priority, and anyone with information is asked to contact the department at 707-822-2428.

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UPDATE, 6:30 p.m.: One of the local residents targeted with these notes (theirs was wrapped around a brick and placed on their car) provided a statement to the Outpost. 

“How ironic that this threat is directed at a community that overwhelmingly supports democratic ideals,” the note says, in part.

It later adds, “In lieu of violence may I suggest the perpetrators donate to progressive causes, write postcards to encourage voting, call their political representatives in congress, and support businesses engaged in fair practices. We are not the enemy and neither are our Teslas. In a final note of irony I am of Jewish descent. Nazis indeed.”