Errol Musk says Elon upgraded security at his home due to ‘recent threats’
Billionaire Elon Musk has implemented heavy security measures at his father Errol’s home in South Africa due to his concern over potential threats against the family, the 76-year-old said in a recent interview.
Errol Musk said the enhanced security features implemented at his home include 24/7 video monitoring, an electric fence and a backup power system.
“He decided, after the recent threats against him, that I need protection as well,” Musk’s father said in an interview with the US Sun published last Friday. “If they kidnap one of us, it will be the quickest $20 million anybody’s ever made in their life.”
The elder Musk said he was contacted by “Elon’s people” and then received a notice in December that a security company would be upgrading his home’s defenses and provide constant support.
“They focus 100 percent on me. It’s a new, super big security company armed to the teeth,” he added. “They check on me all the time. If they see a strange car in my driveway, they come in and ask me if I’m alright.”
Errol Musk told the outlet he had four break-ins at his home over the last year before the security measures were implemented.
In recent months, Elon Musk has openly discussed the security risks he’s faced while leading a controversial overhaul at Twitter. In December, the Twitter CEO shared a video of what he described as a “crazy stalker” who allegedly followed a car carrying his two-year-old son.
Musk also permanently banned a Twitter account operated by college student Jack Sweeney that tracked the movements of his private plane. The billionaire had long referred to the account as a “security risk.” Sweeney has since started a new account that posts the flight information with a 24-hour delay.
When Twitter abruptly suspended the accounts of several journalists in December, Musk said it was because they had doxed his real-time location – a move he alleged was tantamount to giving “assassination coordinates” to the public.
In December, Musk also said he faces a “quite significant” risk of assassination and quipped that he would not be attending any “open-air car parades.”
The billionaire’s moves at the social media site included the release of the “Twitter Files,” a massive dump of internal documents and communications detailing instances of censorship under the company’s old leadership.
Errol Musk told the outlet he felt his son was being “a bit naïve about the enemies he’s making, especially with the Twitter files.”
“I’m not scared but I’m really afraid that something might happen to Elon, even though he has about 100 security guards around him,” Errol said.
Elon and Errol Musk have had a notoriously contentious relationship. In September, Elon said he had financially supported his father since the 1990s.
In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, Musk described his father as “brilliant with engineering” but “such a terrible human being.”