Tesla’s Phantom Shooter: The Strange Story of a Debunked Threat

The tip, police say, came in to a Tesla Inc. call center in Las Vegas. A distraught former employee had a gun -- and seemed ready to use it. The ex-worker’s name, the caller said, was Martin Tripp.

That June 20 warning set off a frantic search for Tripp, who had recently lost his job at Tesla’s sprawling factory near Reno, Nev., where the company makes batteries for its electric cars.

Five weeks later, the strange story of Tripp’s brushes with law enforcement, and with Tesla, keeps getting stranger. After wrapping up their investigation, local law enforcement officials say they’ve ...