Super Corvette spy photog NOT arrested!

[Flybrian]

Shipping company employee carted off to jail for Corvette SS pics
Posted Feb 22nd 2007 6:02PM by John Neff
Link to Original Article @ AutoBlog

SPY SHOTS! 23 Corvette Blue Devil powertrain mule pics!

We've just learned that EMO TRANS, the shipping company that was hired by General Motors to transport a Corvette SS mule to Germany for testing on the Nurburgring, has fired the employee who took pictures of the vehicle and posted them on the internet. In addition, the unnamed employee has been taken to jail, though we don't know what charges have been filed against him.

This clearly illustrates how seriously GM is taking the development of the Corvette SS, as well as how utterly embarrased and apologetic EMO TRANS must be for the actions of its employee. It's all fun and games on our side of the fence because we got to see some real, informative shots of this very special Vette, but it reminds us that there's a lot of money on the line. We're sure that GM didn't appreciate pics of this powerplant were available for every other automaker to peruse. Lesson learned, though harder for some than others.

[Slowrider5]

I'd like to see some better sourcing behind this claim before I believe it - so far it's just AutoBlog saying "we just learned....."

To be carted off to jail, you have to break a criminal law. I can see how snapping a few photos and posting them on the internet could get you fired, but I don't see what's criminal about it. Now if he tried to blackmail GM with the photos, or he got in the car and drove it around for a bit, that'd be different.

Edited February 23, 2007 by Slowrider5

[Sixty8panther]

Slowrider:

Dude, get real... you think that ANYONE within 100 meters of this car was not instructed to be clandestine,

as a matter of fact they probably signed a confidentiality agreement of sorts with EMO TRANS. He did not

do this accidentally. It was not an innocent mistake.

[FAPTurbo]

:pokeowned:

[JWilly48519]

...you think that ANYONE within 100 meters of this car was not instructed to be clandestine,

as a matter of fact they probably signed a confidentiality agreement of sorts with EMO TRANS. He did not

do this accidentally. It was not an innocent mistake.

Heh. You've got an interesting grasp of the dividing line between civil and contractural obligations (which can get you sued for damages), and criminal violations, i.e. felonies and some classes of serious misdemeanors (which can get you arrested and tossed in jail).

If I work for you, and you tell me to keep my mouth shut, and I don't, you can fire me. End of story, no more action possible.

If I work for you, and I sign a contractural agreement to keep your secrets in return for consideration with the explicit condition that if I don't keep your secrets I am damaging you, and I proceed to blab about those secrets, you can sue my backside. You may collect damages from a court, and attach my bank account and anything else I've got that can be seized and converted to cash. What you can't do is have the cops throw me in jail.

The enforcement of an employer-employee behavior contract is always civil. It's not criminal to be a bad employee. (Fortunately for most of us, at some point in our lives.)

For the cops to throw me in jail, I have to have done something criminal, or at least rising to the level of a serious misdemeanor.

Taking a car out of the cargo stream and going for a joyride, for instance. Or maybe removing parts from it. I haven't a clue as to whether the individual involved did something like that, but either of those actions could be interpreted as grand theft, given the value of this particular car.

I'll be quite surprised if the Romulus police turn out to have arrested and jailed someone for the "crime" of angering GM by taking pictures of high-value air cargo in transit. The city attorney for Romulus would have a hard time figuring out how to defend against the resulting civil suit for false arrest, I'm quite sure.

None of the above, of course, is a defense of this particular dude's stupidity. But, if photographic security was *that* important to GM, maybe they could have done a little more on their end as well...given that 90% of the young-adult population carries a camera these days.

Edited February 23, 2007 by JWilly48519

[JWilly48519]

He wasn't arrested. He's still an idiot, of course. GM has filed a civil complaint...presumably against Emo, since the idiot didn't have any direct responsibility to GM.

http://www.thegmsource.com/index.php?categ...2_articleid=249

Depending on the terms of any employee-confidentiality contract Emo had with the employee, they might get damages from him. I'd be exceedingly surprised if Emo didn't pursue this guy as hard as is legally possible in order to make an example of him, given that Emo might have some big-time civil damages exposure to GM depending on the terms of their contract. At the very least, Emo's commercial viability in the Detroit air freight marketplace is on the line.

***

Notwithstanding my post above about lack of criminal action, I wonder if the act of opening the hood could be seen under law as analogous to razor-knifing open a sealed box on a palette in transit. Even if it can't be shown that you actually took anything out of a box you opened, the fact of your having broken the seal on that box amounts to the criminal action of "breaking", as in breaking and entering. The key to this might be if GM had put some kind of security seal on the hood that had to be explicitly cut or broken in order to get it open.

If such a seal was used, there could be room for an interpretation of criminal action. All that would be needed would be criminally sufficient evidence of who cut/broke the seal.

[Z-06]

JWilly, the act of "opening" the hood is indeed like putting a razor knife on a sealed box.

Shipping carriers respobsibility is to ship. It is the customs and US govenrment who are supposed to open those boxes if they think it is doubtful.

The employee has done a criminal act here of trying to open the hood with out the permission of the owner, so it is just not civil anymore.

[Slowrider5]

Slowrider:

Dude, get real... you think that ANYONE within 100 meters of this car was not instructed to be clandestine,

as a matter of fact they probably signed a confidentiality agreement of sorts with EMO TRANS. He did not

do this accidentally. It was not an innocent mistake.

Dude, you completely miss the point.........as Jwilly noted very well. Doesn't matter if it was an innocent mistake or not. Simply breaking a confidentiality agreement is not criminal.

And what do you know, it comes to light today that the guy was not arrested. While I don't consider "thegmsource" website to be a rock-solid source, it appears they did their homework by checking police records.

As far as opening the hood goes, how is that any different than opening the car door? To transport a car, you have to open doors, unless you are somehow going to magically get it on a plane or truck without rolling it. To transport a box, you don't need to open the box. I think one could make a reasonable argument that by shipping a car you need to open the trunk and hood to look for any significant loose pieces.

Edited February 23, 2007 by Slowrider5

[Dragon]

all depends how the shipping agreement is written.

I'm sure GM's lawyers have it setup in a way such that there is minimal interaction required between the car and shipping employees. Probably including keep them out of the trunk and under the hood

[Flybrian]

Well, in case anyone is interested, here's the report obtained from the Romulus, MI police department:

[RJB]

I heard on the news on the way in to work that GM had posted a $1,000,000 bounty on any info or if someone would give up the person up who did it.

Edited March 5, 2007 by RJB

[Dragon]

why would GM do that? they already know who did it