Nancy Amons namons@wsmv.com

February 21, 2003

A car that doesn't need fuel? That runs on batteries that never have to be plugged in?

(Carl Tilley) "As long as this car is moving, it's charging itself."

Carl Tilley says he's invented a device that creates energy - despite his lack of scientific training.

(Tilley) "I think it was a combination of stupidity, and just being hard-headed. Just because someone tells me I can't do something, doesn't necessarily mean it can't be done."

Tilley says the device he invented runs his shop, a boat, and an ATV using no external power or fuel whatsoever.

(Walter Webb) "Carl Tilley hasn't figured out anything, in my opinion, except how to manipulate people out of their money."

For the first time, two former company insiders go public, sharing with the I-Team home videos of Tilley's presentations to investors. Claims they say are nothing but smoke and mirrors.

(Robert Kibbey) "I was a part of it for more than a year, and it fooled me."

Robert Kibbey, an inventor himself, worked with Tilley on this early prototype. He says at best the device will light a 200-watt bulb for four hours.

(Kibbey) "It doesn't do what he's claiming it will do. In any way, shape, or form."

Kibbey and Walter Webb, Tilley's former right hand man, are involved in a series of lawsuits with Tilley. They say he's misleading investors, who've given Tilley more than half a million dollars.

We don't know if Tilley's device "creates energy" or not. But the channel four I-Team found some serious contradictions in things Tilley says. For example, what he tells potential investors who ask if he uses the device at his own home.

(Carl Tilley on home video) "I can tell you this much, my electric bill last week was ten dollars. Last month, ten bucks."

Ten dollars a month? Not exactly. We checked the records at Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Co-op. It was $74 that month.

Tilley tells investors the device can actually create so much extra power, you can sell it back to the electric company. And, that if they invest now, here's the payoff when the device sells in two months:

(Carl Tilley on home video) "you get ten percent of 100 million dollars."

Ten percent of a hundred million dollars? That's small potatoes compared to the offer he tells stockholders about in March.

(Carl Tilley) "We do have one offer, right now. At this moment. To buy, sight unseen, all the technology, for two billion."

Two billion, with a b. That offer, he says, from General Electric. Really? The Channel Four I-Team checked with GE. A spokesman says they have no record of any contact with Tilley.

We asked why Tilley claimed to have that two billion dollar offer. He says he was fooled by an impostor who claimed he was from GE.

(Tilley) "This guy was as phony as a two dollar bill, but I didn't find out about it until I tried to contact him."

The GE claim, says Walter Webb, was his clarifying moment - the moment he realized that Tilley wasn't what he claimed to be.

(Walter Webb) "No one has purchased this technology. And I truly believe it's because he won't let anyone from the outside perform independent tests, and my personal belief, is that it just will never, ever do what he claims it will do, no matter how much research and development is done."

(Amons) "Have you had this independently tested?" (Tilley) "Yes, we have." (Amons) "Tell me what happened. Who did you have test it?" (Tilley) "I can't tell you who because that's in the negotiation phase."

Who's buying it, who's tested it, what's in it - those are all questions Tilley won't answer, claiming they're trade secrets.

(Amons) "What's in the thing?" (Tilley) Little gerbils. Little bitty gerbils. And they're on steroids."

He won't show investors what's inside either, but listen to how he describes part of the secret of his magic box.

(Carl Tilley on home video) "I've told you guys this before, it does have four, 23, 24, carat gold wires in it...." 24-four-carat gold wires?

(Walter Webb) "That is a lie. I seen inside the box. It's a wind turbine. That's it."

It's a simple wind turbine say Webb and Kibbey, like the one on top of Tilley's shop. No gold.

(Kibbey) "It's a regular magnet that's copper-wound."

(Amons) "They say you're a con man." (Tilley) "If I'm a con man, do you think, if I was a good con man, or even a bad con man, that I would take and build all this stuff here? If I was a con man, I'd be gone a long time ago, now wouldn't I? Wouldn't I have taken, no, answer my question, wouldn't I have taken it and taken the money and run?" (Amons) "Haven't you done that already?" (Tilley) "No, I have not." (Amons) "Isn't everything here in your name?" (Tilley) "Everything here belongs to the corporation."

No it doesn't. Public records show the buildings and seven acres are in Carl Tilley's name. He owns everything, even though company records show almost $300,000 of stockholders money was spent on the improvements.