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Police: Man charged with vandalizing Tesla Cybertruck parked at Hingham charging station
Brendan Mullen, 20, of Weymouth was arrested Tuesday.
A Weymouth man was arrested on Tuesday and charged with vandalizing a Tesla Cybertruck while it was parked at a charging station in Hingham over the weekend, authorities announced.
Brendan Mullen, 20, was arraigned Wednesday on the charge of malicious damage to a motor vehicle in Hingham District Court, where he pleaded not guilty, according to court records.
Hingham police said the department received a report on Sunday from a man who said his truck had been vandalized while it was charging in the Station Street parking lot. The owner told officers he was alerted that someone damaged the truck by a security feature on the vehicle, which recorded a video of the incident.
Surveillance video captured a man, later identified as Mullen, using a key to scratch the truck along its passenger side before he got into another vehicle and drove away, according to police.
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“Officers were able to identify the man in the video and he agreed to come to the police station on Tuesday, April 15, where he was arrested,” police said.
Mullen was released following his arraignment and will return to court on May 16. The motive in the alleged incident was not immediately clear, and Mullen’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There has been a surge of acts of vandalism in Massachusetts and across the country targeting Teslas as a form of protest against the actions and involvement of Elon Musk, the company’s owner and close ally of President Donald Trump, in the federal government. Last week, two men were separately charged with vandalizing Teslas in Peabody and Hingham. In recent weeks, Boston police have announced multiple investigations into a series of incidents where Teslas in the city were targeted for vandalism.
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