Cheers to Chrysler Corporation....if we hadn't just bought a new car last month, we'd go right out and buy one from them now:

Lonnie Erby, freed after 17 years in prison for three rapes that DNA tests recently showed he did not commit, got his old job back Monday at the DaimlerChrysler plant in Fenton.

"He's coming back on night shift," said Louis Johnson, a steward for United Auto Workers Local No. 110. Erby had worked seven years at the plant, and DaimlerChrysler agreed to give him credit for those years, something the car company maker did not have to do, Johnson said. "It's a pretty good thing on Chrysler's side," he said.

Erby, 49, is expected to work in the paint department, the same place he worked before, Johnson said. Dan Bodene, a DaimlerChrysler spokesman, confirmed the hiring and said, "We're glad to have him back in the Chrysler family."