Not Quite One Piece At A Time

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

There once was a song written by Johnny Cash about an auto worker who wanted a Cadillac but couldn’t afford it outright. Thus, he took parts off the line bit by bit until he finally had the car of his dreams.

This is not that story.

According to WAVE (my local NBC affiliate), a temporary employee of the Toyota Georgetown plant stole over $56,000 USD worth of auto parts between 19 March and 15 May of this year, all in the form of 160 cylinder heads. The heads were then sold to two recyclers as scrap.

Forty-three heads were recovered by authorities, but were unusable and written off as a total loss according to Toyota. Whether they’ll be sold for scrap (irony) or recycled in-house is another matter.

The employee, Michael G. Kenny of Winchester, Kentucky, was charged with theft by unlawful taking over $10,000.


Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Carfriend313 Carfriend313 on Aug 10, 2012

    This is nothing. I knew a guy who got fired for sneaking out for a cigarette during his shift. After the third time he was gone. Now if that isn't a serious crime, I don't know what is!

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    • Mzdaspd304 Mzdaspd304 on Aug 10, 2012

      @golden2husky I hate people who think like this. The glass half empty, I have it out for smokers because my _insert name of a realitve_ died from smoking. Or they get pissed because you get a break and others don't because you smoke. There is a simple solution to this besides putting another person in the unemployment line....Just don't pay them. We have to clock in and out for smokes at my job. The more you smoke the less you get paid. Simple as that. When you look at your paycheck and see how much less you got because you went and smoked, you start thinking about not taking that smoke more and more. Not only do you start making money, you save your health. If you are salaried, payroll managers and offices can make simple "extra" deductions that is quite simple and not a burden of the company.

  • Feds Feds on Aug 10, 2012

    There was an urban legend in Oshawa about the guy who passed out as he was approaching the turnstile at the end of a shift. Under his jacket he was carrying 2 heads tied together with a length of rope, and hung around his neck/shoulders. As with every good urban legend, everyone knew the guy, or knew a guy who knew a guy, but no one could remember his name. The Deere plant, however, had a real concentration of lowriders. Flex-wing cutters had an optional air suspension that used firestone bags. Oddly, we consumed a lot more bags that were required to meet the orders.

  • Areader Areader on Aug 10, 2012

    Worked in a building once where they had a "clean out" day. Everybody was supposed to go through their space and pile all the paper files they didn't need someplace in their office where the clean out crew would see them and take them out. I think it was a Saturday. So Monday morning, the typewriters were gone. Maybe not every one, or maybe it was every one; don't remember, but it was a hell of a lot of typewriters. The building occupied a full city block and was 10 stories high. Had 3 relatives who worked in an IH plant a LONG time ago. One day a guy walked out with his pants stuffed with hacksaw blades. Before he got to the gate, they started sliding out and falling on the ground. Guard watched this spectacle and didn't say a word.

  • Ron B. Ron B. on Aug 10, 2012

    Ineon has it nailed right there... removing stuff from large scale factories is known a shrinkage. it has always happened . but this is so true : "Anyone is now one GaGa dye-job or cigarette away from unemployment. We need to call this what it is, instead of defending it for what it isn’t– it is large-scale behaviour modification for the benefit of our superiors..." If you want to see the future in American work places look to Australia where such social engineering by the labor party has been in full swing for close on 40 years. We are so overgoverned that the australian people ressemble the population of preglasnot Soviet block Citizens. We have lost all incentive to innovate and creativity is stifled because of legislation designed to protect us. We aren't even allowed to have gay marriages.. whatever that is.

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