Crown Equipment halts production amid suspected cyberattack

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

By JARED JERNAGAN, Editor

With no official word from the company itself, Crown Equipment Corp. has shut down its production plants worldwide.

This shutdown includes the three Crown buildings on the east end of Greencastle and their 956 local employees.

Management at the New Bremen, Ohio-based forklift manufacturer has always been tight-lipped regarding news of the company, and the latest incident has been no exception.

What is known, however, is that Crown has stopped production not simply in Greencastle, but at facilities across North America as well as in Asia, Australia and Europe.

Employees were reportedly sent home on Monday, June 10, and online chatter from employees alleges they have been told that they will not be paid for the time off unless they take vacation time or apply for unemployment.

One such employee wrote a letter to the Mercer County Outlook newspaper in Ohio, sharing frustrations and concerns:

“They have told us that we must use our vacation time or file for unemployment because they will not be paying us,” the employee wrote, “and that they will not be providing us with a mass layoff (number). Nobody knows what is going on or when we will return to work.”

Similar concerns have been stated by local employees on social media.

The issue is widely speculated to be a cyberattack of some sort, though this has not been formally established.

The company website at crown.com does not return anything other than a mostly white screen with a gray Crown logo and the words “crown.com is temporarily unavailable. Please bookmark us or add us to your favorites and return soon.”

Story will be updated if the company releases any official word.

Comments

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Better give the company more tax abatement, maybe this time for some minimal cyber protection. That ought to get them back up and running.

On a slightly more serious note, in exchange for these never-ending abatements, the least they could do is communicate the problem to the community. After all, it is we who pitch in to help pay their property taxes.

-- Posted by Bob Fensterheim on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 5:38 PM
On the other side of the coin, it is they who provide jobs for community members. Be careful what you wish for.

-- Posted by Koios on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 9:14 PM
All computers and phone systems were affected, extremely difficult to communicate effectively. Can't do payroll immediately without access to systems.

-- Posted by unbiased on Tue, Jun 18, 2024, at 9:47 PM
It would be nice if they would communicate, at least with the employees. No word on really what is going on, or a return to work date. It is frustrating

-- Posted by anymouse on Wed, Jun 19, 2024, at 8:59 AM

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