Rivals Accused Of Spying By E-Mail ; Former K&W Tire Employees, Hired By Another Tire Firm, Face Hearing On Charges They Accessed Information.

Associate Editor

gsmart@lnpnews.com

The tire salesman in Cleona, Lebanon County, felt a bit uneasy.

He'd been given lists - of consignments, of wholesale tireprices, of customers. Problem was, none of the information hadanything to do with the Cleona business, Henise Tire. Instead, itappeared to come from a rival - K&W Tire, based in Lancaster.

The salesman called the police. And earlier this month, threeformer K&W employees were charged with third-degree felonies afterpolice said they obtained the information illegally, by logging intoan e-mail account assigned to a current K&W employee.

The men - Robert E. Biggs, of Lancaster, Jeffrey G. Shultz, ofStrasburg, and Edward Roeder, of Bethlehem - were charged Jan. 4 byLancaster Detective Lt. Clark Bearinger with "unlawful use ofcomputer and other computer crimes." In addition, Biggs was chargedwith computer theft because the information he obtained via the e-mail account "can be used to deprive KW of sales throughout theirarea and therefore cost them business and money."

The three face a preliminary hearing Feb. 8 before MagisterialDistrict Judge Bruce Roth.

"This is not anything like it looks on paper," said Biggs'attorney, Robert D. Beyer, of the Lancaster firm Goldberg & Beyer."This is insane."

He also said he suspected personal animosities were behind thecriminal complaint, but declined to elaborate.

Merrill M. Spahn Jr., who represents Shultz, declined comment.Christopher Patterson, attorney for Roeder, did not return a messageseeking comment.

K&W Tire also declined to speak. "I can't comment on this at thistime," said Vice President and Information Technology Director JeffHood.

Henise Tire officials also refused to comment on the case.

K&W Tire, founded in Lancaster in 1951, has nine locations infour states and employs 185, according to the company website. Itbills itself as one of the largest distributors of Cooper Tires, andCooper proprietary brands, in the country.

According to the affidavits filed in each of the three cases byBearinger, the Henise tire salesman, identified as NathanEisenhower, was given information"sensitive to KW Tire's ... dailybusiness activities" by Biggs in June 2010. He subsequently toldPennsylvania State Police that he "believed such information wouldnot have been legitimately provided to Biggs."

Biggs was the salesman's supervisor at Henise Tire, according tothe affidavit.

State police then contacted Hood, according to the affidavits.Hood "said there were several suspicious log-ins to the KW systemfrom various unknown Internet Protocol [IP] addresses," Bearingerasserts in the complaints. Hood was able to identify at least threeIP addresses, each which "repeatedly accessed an e-mail accountassigned to a KW employee ... numerous times" between June 4 andJuly 11, 2010, according to the three affidavits.

City police spoke to that K&W employee, who said he hadn'tauthorized anyone to log into his account, according to theaffidavits. The affidavit filed in Roeder's case states that K&W"received a call from an anonymous source who stated 'Bob Briggs'and 'Ed Roeder' accessed KW's computer system withoutauthorization." The affidavits filed in the Biggs and Shultz casesdo not contain this assertion.

By early September, Comcast's Legal Compliance Department hadverified that one of the IP addresses identified by Hood belonged toBiggs, and a second to Shultz, the affidavits state.

Biggs, who left K&W Tire in November 2009 and went to work forHenise Tire, was "able to access information sensitive to KWbusiness and would be able to use said information against KW'sbusiness interests," the affidavit states.

Shultz and Roeder, who also worked for K&W before taking jobs atHenise, both admitted to police that they had accessed the K&Wemployee's e-mail account without permission, according theaffidavits filed against the two men.

Shultz subsequently called police and said he "meant no harm" andwould not do it again, according to the complaint in his case.

The unlawful use of computer charge is considered a third-degreefelony, punishable by a fine of up to $30,000 and imprisonment for amaximum of seven years. The computer theft charge, filed againstBiggs, is also considered a third-degree felony.