Files with personal
information found buried in
Converse park
12/05/2006 08:16 AM CST
But it's what city officials
decided to do with it those
files that is raising some
eyebrows and has some
wondering if they have a
reason to be worried.
Last week a contracting crew
hired to do flood control work
at the Converse North Park
stumbled upon bundled-up piles
of buried treasure, if you
want to steal someone's
identity.
"Drivers license (numbers).
Social Security (numbers). Lot
of photographs. All the
information you'd ever want if
you were going to do any kind
of fraud," said David Meyer,
who is part of the crew that
discovered the files.
Also found buried in the park
were police reports, traffic
tickets and even ironically a
ticket for littering.
"It's been exposed for about a
week," Meyer said.
Converse City Manager Sam
Hughes did not want to go on
camera but says the city never
envisioned that all those
files, which were buried in
1998, would ever be
accidentally dug up.
In 1998, it was perfectly
legal to bury that kind of
paperwork, but the state law
was changed five years ago.
And while routine paperwork
can still be buried all
personal information has to be
burned, recycled or shredded.
Monday morning the city sent
in at least half a dozen dump
trucks to haul out all of the
buried files.
But it's where the files were
sent that's concern some
people. The files were sent
straight over and buried at
the other city park in
Converse.
"People getting personal
information, they could clean
your bank account out, and
ruin your good name, quick,"
said Chris Ochoa.
What many want to know is if
Converse broke the law by
reburying those files with
personal information.
Hughes told Eyewitness News
even he's not so sure if they
city broke the law, but says
much of the information was
pretty waterlogged.
