It wasn't the first time there was a fire reported at a Tesla facility: as we noted at the time, there was another one just two months ago...

FIRE AT TESLA PLANT TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED PRODUCTION TUES: CNBC



Any excuse at all — zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 5, 2018

It was, however, the first time that Elon Musk directly blamed the Tesla fire, which supposedly took place at the company's paint shop on Sunday night, on corporate sabotage.

According to CNBC, in an email sent to all employees on Monday morning about the fire, Musk referenced possible sabotage. But it gets better.

The Tesla CEO, who one month ago had a historic earnings call meltdown in which he cut off not one but two sellside analysts for asking "boring questions" (what they really wanted to know is what was the cancellation rate on Model 3s), also sent an e-mail to Tesla employees at Tesla late on Sunday night not only alleging, but also detailing that he has discovered a saboteur in the company's ranks.

That said, there is very little disclosed of said mystery saboteur, except that it was a "he":

I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations. This included making direct code changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System under false usernames and exporting large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties. The full extent of his actions are not yet clear, but what he has admitted to so far is pretty bad. His stated motivation is that he wanted a promotion that he did not receive. In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move.

Casually noting that "there are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die" including "Wall Street short-sellers, who have already lost billions of dollars and stand to lose a lot more", Musk said that this person had conducted "quite extensive and damaging sabotage" to the company's operations, including by changing code to an internal product and exporting data to outsiders.

The rant, which was borderline paranoid, continued, hinting that the saboteur could have from virtually any in a countless number of enemies that Tesla has:

Then there are the oil & gas companies, the wealthiest industry in the world — they don't love the idea of Tesla advancing the progress of solar power & electric cars. Don't want to blow your mind, but rumor has it that those companies are sometimes not super nice. Then there are the multitude of big gas/diesel car company competitors. If they're willing to cheat so much about emissions, maybe they're willing to cheat in other ways?

It gets better, because as the dude said, "this is a very complicated case. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man."

And here is Musk:

"there may be considerably more to this situation than meets the eye, so the investigation will continue in depth this week. We need to figure out if he was acting alone or with others at Tesla and if he was working with any outside organizations."

Maybe for Musk's next distraction he will kidnap himself?

For now, however, Musk is merely building up the tension as he juxtaposes the lone crusader company against the entire world:

Most of the time, when there is theft of goods, leaking of confidential information, dereliction of duty or outright sabotage, the reason really is something simple like wanting to get back at someone within the company or at the company as a whole. Occasionally, it is much more serious.

Musk, who recently wanted to purchase the pravudh.com domain to take on the press for their "fake news" then had some advice to his workers: if you see something, immediately rat someone out say something.

Please be extremely vigilant, particularly over the next few weeks as we ramp up the production rate to 5k/week. This is when outside forces have the strongest motivation to stop us. If you know of, see or suspect anything suspicious, please send a note to [email address removed for privacy] with as much info as possible. This can be done in your name, which will be kept confidential, or completely anonymously.

Musk's final words to his remaining workers - as a reminder last week he fired 9% of the Tesla workforce just before he bought $25MM in TSLA stock on margin in the premarket in hopes of starting another short squeeze - were somewhat more optimistic...

Looking forward to having a great week with you as we charge up the super exciting ramp to 5000 Model 3 cars per week!

... but of course, if the "super exciting ramp to 5000 Model 3 cars per week" fails, well now one can just blame a saboteur.

Musk's letter immediately prompted various comments from skeptics:

As excerpted from the Tesla Q2 conference call:



Q: Hi Elon, when you say you only built 200 Model 3 per week due to sabotage what exactly do...



A. We're going to go to YouTube. Sorry. These questions are so dry. They're killing me. — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 18, 2018

If I were hunting for an internal arsonist, I might start with the list of potential suspects who bought a flamethrower. 🔥🔥🔥$TSLA #BoringCompany — TeslaCharts (@TeslaCharts) June 18, 2018

Tesla has worked with authorities to come up with an artist’s interpretation sketch of the “saboteur” at the company pic.twitter.com/TKIaPogjq8 — Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) June 18, 2018

They finally found the guy who did the SolarCity deal, racked up massive debt, the creator of the Alien Dreadnought, and completely lying about the production numbers. $TSLAQ $TSLA https://t.co/XwpFPmxI4h — Jin SEO (@JTSEO9) June 18, 2018

I found the arsonist. He was captured on film in the tent on Friday evening. You have to squint to see him, on the left... I zoomed in for you.$TSLA pic.twitter.com/z6d42EgCye — TeslaCharts (@TeslaCharts) June 18, 2018

Just asked Tesla if anyone filed a report with law enforcement pursuant to the ‘sabotage’ email that CNBC just reported on. — Charley Grant (@CGrantWSJ) June 18, 2018

Some have compared the last night's $TSLA factory fire and sabotage to "Reichstag Fire".



That it was done by Musk to rally our workers and supporters before we file Chapter 11 soon and blame BK on Short sellers and Big Oil.



Total nonsense. — Deepak Ahuja CFO (@AhujaCfo) June 18, 2018

Finally, let's recall that it's not the first time that when faced with adversity, Musk promptly blamed event on... sabotage:

Do we have a pattern here? pic.twitter.com/t5BOR8TH3Y — Exhibit 31.2 (@Bar2lucci) June 18, 2018

And as this farce continues, we fully expect TSLA stock to squeeze even higher tomorrow, surpassing its previously all time high.

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The full Musk letter is below, courtesy of CNBC: