[Editor’s Note: This story is from Lancasteronline.com, part of Lancaster Newspapers Inc., and was written by associate editor Gil Smart.]

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

He’d been given lists – of consignments, of wholesale tire prices, of customers. Problem was, none of the information had anything to do with the Cleona business, Henise Tire. Instead, it appeared to come from a rival – K&W Tire, based in Lancaster.

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

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

The three face a preliminary hearing Feb. 8 before Magisterial District 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 the criminal complaint, but declined to elaborate.

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

K&W Tire also declined to speak. "I can’t comment on this at this time," said Vice President and Information Technology Director Jeff Hood.

Henise Tire officials also refused to comment on the case.

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

According to the affidavits filed in each of the three cases by Bearinger, the Henise tire salesman, identified as Nathan Eisenhower, was given information "sensitive to KW Tire’s … daily business activities" by Biggs in June 2010. He subsequently told Pennsylvania State Police that he "believed such information would not have been legitimately provided to Biggs."

Biggs was the salesman’s supervisor at Henise Tire, according to the affidavit.

State police then contacted Hood, according to the affidavits. Hood "said there were several suspicious log-ins to the KW system from various unknown Internet protocol [IP] addresses," Bearinger asserts in the complaints. Hood was able to identify at least three IP addresses, each which "repeatedly accessed an e-mail account assigned to a KW employee … numerous times" between June 4 and July 11, 2010, according to the three affidavits.

City police spoke to that K&W employee, who said he hadn’t authorized anyone to log into his account, according to the affidavits. 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 without authorization." The affidavits filed in the Biggs and Shultz cases do not contain this assertion.

By early September, Comcast’s Legal Compliance Department had verified that one of the IP addresses identified by Hood belonged to Biggs, and a second to Shultz, the affidavits state.

Biggs, who left K&W Tire in November 2009 and went to work for Henise Tire, was "able to access information sensitive to KW business and would be able to use said information against KW’s business interests," the affidavit states.

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

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

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