24-year-old woman arrested for vandalizing Tesla in Clayton with swastika, "Nazi"
Olivia Marie Antoine, Zebulon, has been charged with "injuring or tampering with vehicle," a Class 2 misdemeanor
Olivia Marie Antoine, a 24-year-old resident of Zebulon in Wake County, has been charged by in Johnston County with vandalizing a Tesla in Clayton earlier this month by drawing a swastika and the word "Nazi" on the vehicle.
If the name "Antoine" sounds familiar, it's probably because she appears to be the daughter of Michelle Antoine, a Republican member of the Johnston County School Board, and the sister of Parker Antoine, who were the subjects of a recent story also involving the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office:
Although direct evidence of motive in this specific case has not been revealed, it fits a current trend of property damage up to and including firebombs targeting Tesla vehicles, facilities, and infrastructure due to the CEO Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration and the new Department of Government Efficiency. (Olivia Antoine has been described on social media by an unverified acquaintance as "very very liberal," in contrast to her conservative mother.)
Incident Report: March 13th - Clayton, NC
According to the incident report, the vandalism occurred was while the 2021 Tesla Model 3 was parked at the shopping center at the intersection of Highway 42 and Neuse River Parkway in Clayton on March 13.
The Clayton woman to whom the vehicle belonged returned to find that a swastika and the word "Nazi" had been painted on her Tesla in a "white-milky substance."
The owner reported the incident to the Johnston County Sheriff's Office, who were able to identify Antoine as the culprit using facial recognition software. (The entire incident had been captured on the Tesla's camera system.)
Antoine, a former Clayton resident herself, has been charged with one count of "Injuring or tampering with vehicle" (NC GS § 14‑160.4), a Class 2 misdemeanor, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 days "community punishment" and/or a $1,000 fine for a first time offender.
As a reminder, defendants are innocent until proven guilty.
A Widespread Phenomenon
In addition to this incident in Johnston County, there have been at least two reports of property damage against Tesla vehicles in Wake County recently as well.
Late Sunday night, March 23rd, the driver-side window of a Tesla Model S was shattered by a BB gun while driving through Zebulon, which is perhaps not coincidentally the town where Antoine lives.
"Who knows if that would have gone through when I was driving with my kids," said the vehicle's owner Jese Martinez, in an interview with WRAL. "Unfortunately, we're just in a crazy time at the moment."
Although a political motivation in that attack by an unknown perpetrator has not been established, the same is not true for another incident of vandalism in which a vandal carved "NAZI" into a Tesla belonging to a Garner man.
Although incidents of small-scale vandalism like these three local occurrences have been documented across the country, there have also been much more serious attacks nationwide, including:
Transgender-identifying man arrested for causing $5k-$20k damage at a Colorado Tesla dealership with spray paint and molotov cocktails
Incendiary device found at the same Colorado facility, "putting several people inside the building at risk"
Seven Tesla charging stations intentionally set on fire in Massachusetts
Late night gunshots fired into Oregon Tesla dealership, damaging windows and vehicles
Black-clad man charged with firing gunshots, throwing molotov cocktail at a separate Oregon Tesla location
Fire which damaged four Cybertrucks in Seattle storage lot under investigation
Why?
Although the perpetrators of these crimes have gone unidentified, and those who have been caught have not necessarily explained their thoughts (or lack thereof) publicly, we have a large sample size of anti-Tesla activists engaging in legal forms of political expression from which to draw insight.
Tesla Takedown, which has helped organize anti-Musk and anti-Tesla protests across the country, describes Musk as "destroying our democracy" with an "illegal coup," with their website telling visitors to "sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines."
The language, rhetoric, and imagery used against Musk mirrors attacks by the left against President Donald Trump since his entry into politics nearly ten years ago with language of "anti-democracy," as well as associating Trump and Musk with fascism, Nazis, and Hitler. (In addition to the "NAZI" scratched into the Garner Tesla, swastika graffiti has been featured in many of these instances of vandalism.)
The "anti-fascist" rhetoric reflects the overlap with the radical leftwing antifa movement, which is characterized by a willingness to fight "fascism" by any means necessary and an extremely broad definition of "fascism" which includes the entire right-wing in America.
In addition to the "pro-democracy" and "anti-fascism" rhetoric, a number left-wing demonstrations in Raleigh against Trump and Musk since the presidential election have focused on opposing the cuts to federal bureaucracy and government-funded non-profits:
Anti-Trumpers protest Project 2025 in Raleigh (No. 110 — Feb. 8, 2025)
Anti-Trumpers return to Raleigh for president's day (No. 112 — Feb. 22, 2025)
Anti-Musk protest outside Tesla showroom (No. 113 — Mar. 1, 2025)
Leftists, Palestine supporters demand Duke stand up to Trump (No. 113 — Mar. 1, 2025)
Third anti-Trump "50501" protest: "People's Picnic" (No. 114 — Mar. 8, 2025)
Hundreds (including Rep. Ross) protest grant cuts (No. 114 — Mar. 8, 2025)
Union activists protest federal job cuts (No. 115 — Mar. 15, 2025)
NC Democratic Party organizes anti-DOGE rally (No. 115 — Mar. 15, 2025)
Ongoing anti-Tesla protest (No. 115 — Mar. 15, 2025)
Veterans protest Trump, Musk, Doge (No. 115 — Mar. 15, 2025)
REPORT: 4th weekly anti-Tesla protest holding strong (No. 116 — Mar. 22, 2025)
Union-organized protest against Sen. Tillis (No. 116 — Mar. 22, 2025)
Weird how Michelle's family photo on her campaign site doesn't show Olivia. It's almost like everyone hates you Olivia, because you're an actual textbook definition fucking loser.