Inactive Company’s Applicant Personal Information Found in Dumpster

"MCALLEN - The local Attorney General’s Office is currently safekeeping personal information that was found in a dumpster.

A viewer notified CHANNEL 5 NEWS he found stacks of folders filled with information of people from the Rio Grande Valley.

David Aguilera Jr. spotted them when he was throwing away posters. He said piles of paper and folders were stacked from the middle to the bottom of the container.

“I was making room to put them in there, and when I moved the box a whole bunch of papers fell and I saw a picture ID of a license,” he said. “I grabbed it and there was another one at the bottom and another one.”

Among the trash were copies of people’s driver’s license and Social Security cards attached to job applications. Most of the paperwork belonged to people out of Brownsville.

Aguilera said the top of the applications listed a company called Millennium Solutions Inc.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS went to visit the address listed on the papers but the building was empty.

However, we later came across a Millennium Solutions Inc.’s social media page. The description said they’re dedicated to selling Time Warner Cable residential services.

Time Warner Cable is now called Charter Spectrum. A spokesperson for the company responded with the following statement:

“The security of personal information is of the outmost importance to us, and we’re looking into the situation.”

We also notified the Texas Attorney General’s Office out of McAllen. They sent an officer to check the dumpster out. The officer wasn’t authorized to do an on-camera interview, but he did say they will have to move the dumpster to a secure location and pick through it by hand to recover all personal information.

Aguilera said he decided to let someone know to save people from the unexpected.

“A lot of my family member’s friends have issues with identity theft. That’s what came to my mind,” he said."

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Dangers of Burning Paper

A recent example is a woman in Jefferson Township who was burning paper in her basement. The fire got out of control and the fire department had to put out the blaze. The initial savings of not calling a certified shredding company ended up costing approximately $1,100 in fire/smoke damages. Having a fire to destroy information is one of the more popular ideas out there but it's not the best way to avoid identity theft.

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2016 SHRED EVENTS

You don't always need to come to us to have your documents shred. We have a list of upcoming events where we'll be in your neighborhood.

Shred Event Locations and Times:

Friday, April 22nd, 2016 from 10am - 1pm at Northside Kmart/Crime Stoppers (3415 N Elizabeth St. Pueblo, CO 81008)
Friday, April 29th, 2016 from 10am - 1pm at Canon City UAA (3224 Independence Rd. Canon City, CO 81212
Saturday April 30th, 2016 from 9:30am – 2:30pm with the BBB in Colorado Springs (Vermijo Street, vehicles may enter either from Cascade or Sawatch Streets)
Friday, May 6th, 2016 from 10am - 1pm at High Country Recycling (709 Main Street, Westcliffe, CO 81052)
Saturday, June 18th, 2016 from 9am - 12pm at AARP in Black Forest (12455 Black Forest Rd. Colorado Springs, CO 80908)
Friday, July 15th, 2016 from 12pm - 3pm at Sun West Credit Union (4141 Sovereign Circle, Pueblo, 81005)
Friday, August 12th, 2016 from 10am - 1pm at the Pueblo Sam’s Club/BBB (412 Eagleridge Blvd. Pueblo, CO 81008)

Contact us for more information about our shred events. Thanks!

Regular Document Destruction is More Important than Ever

Once trash is put out in a public place for disposal, it cannot be expected to remain private. By law, anything that goes curbside, is officially fair game for those lurking in the shadows and looking to steal your identity. Which makes proper document destruction even more important than ever.

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