By Chris Wright
Norwich City saw fit to call in the police – the actual bloody police – after a 17-year old fan leaked photos of the club’s new kit online on Tuesday night, the day before it was due to be officially unveiled.
Norfolk Police were called in after IT student Chris Brown slapped a few images of the Norwich 2012/13 kit (here’s a hint: it’s yellow) on his Twitter account after lifting them from a corner of the club’s official website that was still under construction. It’s worth noting that he did not hack the site, just ‘right clicked> saved as-ed’ a few photos from a page that was being updated.
Brown apparently received a stern phone call from on Wednesday afternoon, asking him how he’d managed to obtain the photos and where exactly he had redistributed them.
During an interview with the BBC, Chris – a Norwich City season-ticket holder – apologised for his actions:
“I’m sorry for any offence I might have caused to the club, but I would never do anything malicious or spiteful because I do have an interest and love the football club.”
“[I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong] at first, but maybe when I was getting retweets and mentions from people on Twitter. That’s when I sort of thought ‘should I really have done this?’, and I do regret it.”
Chris’ mother Trish Brown said:
“I feel Norwich could have handled it better. I feel they could have spoken to Chris and myself… and just discussed why he’d done it, asked him a few more questions, before involving the police.”
“He knows he’s probably done wrong by taking it a bit further, but that was just excitement to show other people what he had done.”
The BBC then garnered the official line from Norwich’s chief executive David McNally:
“We are the guardians of the football club whilst we’re here and so we will protect our property – and our property in the digital age involves our intellectual property, so we won’t allow anybody to come in and take it from us.”
Norfolk Police are now ‘making inquiries into a reported electronic security breach’ and have asked young Chris to assist in their report.
Heavy. Handed.
Remember peons: The Property Guardians are always watching you.