In the information age, theft has clearly taken on a new meaning, with the possession of personal info, credit cards, and social security numbers as the key for many high tech crooks to strike it rich. One Ft. Lauderdale dumpster proved to be a treasure trove of documents with such information--readily available for anyone who passed by--so the police is investigating.
Outside a University of Phoenix Building in Ft. Lauderdale, files and paperwork belonging to the defunct First Magnus Financial at 550 West Cypress Creek Road were just lying inside stacked boxes inside an industrial garbage container, available for anyone to peek at. The paperwork contains some of the most sensitive information a consumer could posses: Social Security numbers, credit card information, addresses, properties, etc.
Shortly after CBS4 News cameras arrived on Friday, employees of the building removed the boxes and took them indoors, all while police officers from Ft. Lauderdale arrived and roped off access to the dumpster and started an investigation.
CBS4's Carey Codd asked the building manager about the documents.
"We were told that we just could get rid of this stuff no matter how, that this was going to end up in the landfill, it's going to be drenched down here inside the container, and no one's going to have access to it," said Mike Shank.
CBS4 News was not able to get a hold of officials with First Magnus.
The building management is supposedly waiting for officials with First Magnus to come and properly dispose of the sensitive documents.