LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Thieves took eight Corvettes from the lot of a Kentucky automobile plant where the legendary muscle car is built, but officers recovered the vehicles and made an arrest, police said.
The cars were taken from the GM Bowling Green Assembly plant in southern Kentucky, the home of the Chevrolet Corvette since the early 1980s. The eight cars were valued at $1.2 million, police said.
Police said the thieves cut a fence at the plant to get the cars out. A man later arrested and charged with the theft of three cars said while being booked into jail that if he “would have made it back to Michigan, I would have been paid big,” according to a police report.
The first car was located Saturday when a woman at an apartment complex in Bowling Green called police to say she saw a man park a new Corvette with stickers on it at the complex and then walk away.
Police contacted the manager of the assembly plant, who checked the inventory and reported that eight Corvettes were missing, according to a Bowling Green Police report.
Police later located four more Corvettes at different locations.
The last three were found after officers received a call from a transporter driver who said he was asked to come to a location to pick up an older model Corvette to transport to Michigan. When the driver arrived, he saw three new 2025 Corvettes and told police the two men trying to move them were in a hurry. He also noticed damage on the bottom of the cars and called the transaction “weird,” according to the citation.
When police arrived, they detained a 21-year-old man after a chase and charged him with receiving stolen property, fleeing arrest and engaging with organized crime. Another man fled in a Jeep with Ohio tags, police said.
Bowling Green Police Public Information Officer Ronnie Ward said Tuesday that no other arrests have been made.
FILE - A line of red Corvettes pass through the GM's Bowling Green Assembly Plant on Wednesday March 24, 2009 in Bowling Green, Ky. (David W. Smith/Daily News via AP)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis general manager Zach Kleiman said Saturday the decision to fire coach Taylor Jenkins with nine games remaining in the regular season with the franchise firmly in the playoff chase was “mine and mine only" and in the Grizzlies' best interests.
Kleiman spoke to reporters after the Grizzlies' pregame shootaround for Saturday night's game against the Los Angeles Lakers — barely 24 hours after Memphis announced firing Jenkins in his sixth season with the Grizzlies. Memphis named Tuomas Iisalo as the interim coach with the Helsinki, Finland, native in his first season coaching in the NBA.
“I came to the conclusion this was in the best interest of the team, and urgency is a core principle of ours so decided to go on with the move,” Kleiman said.
The Memphis GM spoke for less than three minutes, and no Grizzlies spoke after the shootaround. They won't be available until later Saturday at the usual pregame open locker room session when Iisalo speaks to the media for the first time in his new role.
Asked if he hopes making this move now with the Grizzlies currently fifth in the Western Conference starting a stretch with eight of the final nine opponents either playoff clubs or contending for a play-in spot helps Memphis salvage the season, Kleiman said he is focused on how the Grizzlies operate. It's still possible, at least mathematically, that Memphis could get back to No. 2 in the West, and it’s highly unlikely that the Grizzlies will fall into the play-in tournament range.
“I'm responsible for everything,” Kleiman said. “I'm responsible for coaching. I'm responsible for the roster. I'm not trying to absolve myself of anything. I'm excited to see what this team can do the rest of the way, but this was the conclusion that I came to that this was in the best interest of the team and we push forward with this group.”
Kleiman said no players were consulted about the move to fire Jenkins. Kleiman helped hire Jenkins in June 2019 after his own promotion to executive vice president of basketball operations. The GM also did not answer a question about what he wants from Memphis' next coach.
Jenkins had been the fifth longest-tenured coach with his current club in the league, behind only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Golden State’s Steve Kerr and Denver’s Michael Malone — all of them having won NBA titles. In this season with a maturing roster, the Grizzlies' results against the NBA's best weren't good.
The Grizzlies were 0-4 against Oklahoma City, losing those games by 24, 13, 17 and 21 points. They’re 3-6 so far this season against Houston, Denver and the Lakers, the next three teams ahead of them in the West. All season, the Grizzlies were 33-9 against teams at or below .500 and 11-20 against winning clubs.
Jenkins, with a career record of 250-214, was the winningest coach in franchise history for a team that launched in 1995. He had the longest tenure for a Grizzlies' coach since Lionel Hollins took over in the 2008-09 season before his contract was not renewed after reaching the Western Finals in 2013 with a 56-26 record.
But Jenkins has been criticized for continuing to use too many players at a point in the schedule when the rotation needed to be tightened and questioned for his late-game timeouts and other decisions. Asked about reports of two-time All-Star Ja Morant’s frustration over the Memphis offense, Kleiman repeated this was his decision.
Morant, who has missed the last six games with a left hamstring strain, now is listed as questionable for Saturday night's game with the Lakers.
Now Iisalo takes over after coming to the NBA as a Grizzlies assistant for this season, becoming the first Finnish-born coach in the NBA. Iisalo played and coached in Europe, including in 2024 when he was head coach of Paris Basketball, winning the EuroCup and honors as that league’s coach of the year. He also coached Telekom Baskets Bonn between 2021-23 and Crailshem Merlins between 2016 and 2021.
“Looking forward to seeing what he's able to do with this group,” Kleiman said of Iisalo. “There's realistic expectations. There's not going to be time to install a bunch of things this time of year. My expectations are clarity of direction and we'll see what we can do, we'll see what we can execute.”
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Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)
FILE - Telekom Bonn coach Tuomas IIsalo directs his team during the final of the Champions League Final Four Basketball tournament between Telecom Baskets Bonn and Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem in Malaga, Spain, Sunday, May 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero, File)
FILE - Telekom Bonn coach Tuomas IIsalo directs his team during the final of the Champions League Final Four Basketball tournament between Telecom Baskets Bonn and Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem in Malaga, Spain, Sunday, May 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero, File)
