A crazy story involving Tesla has hit the web. Two journalists of the Reno Gazette-Journal broke and entered into the company’s giant battery plant in New Mexico (nicknamed “Gigafactory”) and injured a couple of employees when they tried to flee with their Jeep.
The Tesla Motors blog reports that these two individuals were caught taking pictures of the facility. A Tesla employee approached them and notified them that they were trespassing on Tesla property. They refused to provide their names, despite the Reno Gazette Journal (“RGJ”) ID credentials hanging from their pockets.
The employee and another safety manager asked the RGJ spies to wait before departing, as the Sheriff’s Department were on route to the scene. When they attempted to record the license plate number on the rear bumper, the driver put the Jeep in reverse and accelerated into the Tesla employee, knocking him over. The Jeep then struck the ATV that carried the two safety managers. When one of the safety managers dismounted the ATV and approached the Jeep, the driver of the Jeep accelerated into him, striking him in the waist.
Once the Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene, they arrested one of the RGJ employees – who has since been identified as Andy Barron, an RGJ photographer for the past 17 years – for two counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon and advised that both will be charged with trespassing.