Police Investigating What Woman Found While Dumpster Diving

Authorities in Middle Township are investigating what township resident Carla Carpenter found in her most recent inspection of the townships trash.

On Friday, June 11, Carpenter called NBC 40 to the Middle Township Recycling Center where she was waiting with documents she had picked out of the trash the night before. According to Carpenter these records included, police reports, tax records, and other materials, that listed names, social security numbers, addresses and telephone numbers.

Carpenter said in her TV interview “It makes me think that my information is not safe,”—- “I don’t trust the government because of it. The government should know, you shred and they’re not shredding. They’re putting out information that anyone can use.”

After her interview, Township Administrator Mark Mallett came to the recycling center to check out what was found. Mallett said he would look into the type of reports that were discarded. “What I can do is continue to reinforce the importance of needed to shred this type of information,” said Mallett.

According to police this was not the first time Carpenter had sifted through the Townships garbage. More then a week ago the Township was contacted by Carpenter, reporting personal information was found.

Police department spokesperson Lt. John Edwards said detectives were called to the scene to conduct an internal inquiry into what was found and not a criminal investigation. Edwards said some of the documents found were public information and some were not.

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Richard Holober: Landmark privacy law deserves an update

As the tally of victims grows, so must our commitment to strengthen privacy protections.

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Richard Holober: Landmark privacy law deserves an update

Identity theft growing, getting harder to stop | Business | Star-Telegram

Whatever tools an identity thief is using, whether Dumpster-diving for individual credit card numbers, or stealing identities by the millions, “the damage that you can do to someone is exactly the same,” said Wayne Ivey, a Florida law enforcement officer who has specialized in identity theft investigations for more than 15 years.

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Identity theft growing, getting harder to stop | Business | Star-Telegram

Not Shredding Can Be Costly