It all happened in a flash.
A “decoy” Tesla distracted a scrum of photographers trying to get a good shot of Elon Musk as he entered a San Francisco courthouse on Wednesday, two cameramen on the scene told Business Insider.
“100% a decoy. 100%,” said David Morris, a frustrated yet impressed Bloomberg News photographer. “They had us. It was done very well, actually.”
The Tesla CEO was expected to arrive at the San Francisco federal courthouse on Wednesday to testify in a trial over a lawsuit brought by former Twitter shareholders. They alleged the billionaire violated securities laws in 2022 by driving down the share price of Twitter before he bought it and renamed it X. Musk has said he complied with the law in his communications about the social media company.
According to two photographers on a stakeout outside the courthouse, a Tesla pulled up on the curb, and security guards stepped out to surround it.
As soon as the group of news photographers coalesced around the Tesla — anticipating Musk would step out — an SUV that had been parked a short distance away pulled up right in front of the courthouse door, the photographer said. Musk and his security team ran out of the car and up the courthouse steps, they said.
“He was like probably at least a hundred feet away from us,” Morris said. “And then we noticed that. And it was like three seconds — out of the car, in the door.”
The photographers ultimately got only a handful of pictures of Musk, on the steps entering the courthouse and going through the metal detectors.
“There was security standing in front of him to try to make it so it was hard to get a good photo,” Josh Edelson, a freelance photographer working for Getty Images, told Business Insider.
Musk didn’t make it easy, Edelson said.
“He didn’t look at us. He kept his head looking to the side, so he didn’t look very good,” he said. “It was just a profile shot. It was very obviously a position where he wanted to make it hard for us.”
The entire scene was captured by NBC journalist Scott Budman, who posted a video on X.
Watch: Elon Musk sends A DECOY TESLA AND GUARDS to try and fool the press as he enters the SF courtroom today for the Twitter buyout trial.
(Keep going .. we found him). pic.twitter.com/dV0c3sIxty— scott budman (@scottbudman) March 4, 2026
After Musk entered the building, the Tesla, which appears to be a Model S, zoomed away without anyone else getting out, Morris said.
Attorneys for Musk didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The photographers outside the San Francisco courthouse will have another chance to capture Musk when he leaves the building.
Morris told Business Insider that Bloomberg assigned two photographers for the day — one to cover each exit.
“It’s always a fifty-fifty chance,” he said.
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