COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — A man was taking out his recycling in College Park when he found hundreds of pages of government paperwork that included bank account information, even Social Security numbers.
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Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco talked to Bob Van Orden, who said he even found a folder marked “confidential” in the mounds of paperwork that he found at the city’s Harvard Avenue drop-off last month.
“It was right on top. Very easy to find,” Van Orden said. “Wasn’t underneath anything. I would take a guess, 1,500 papers.”
The attorney general is now involved in the case.
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A spokesperson said detectives are reviewing the documents to confirm how this happened and who is at risk.
“I was shocked. There was one with the city manager’s name written on it and it had a red stamp. Confidential,” Van Orden said. “We saw Social Security numbers, some bank accounts.”
Channel 2 Action News has blacked out the info to prevent any fraud, but the paperwork appears to be connected to employees and businesses who worked with the City of College Park.
Attorneys told Francisco that the Federal Trade Commission sets rules for how cities should dispose of this type of data, for example, by shredding it first. Violations can result in fines.
Interim City Manager Emmanuel Adediran said he did not want to discuss how it may have happened.
“He turned it into the attorney general. So, let them do their investigation, ma’am, okay?” Adediran said to Francisco.
The people who discovered the documents want the city to come up with an action plan in response.
“We need to see accountability,” Van Orden said. “The mistake was made. They need to correct it, protect employees and vendors and make sure this never happens again.”
A College Park spokesman said via e-mail that the city takes the allegations very seriously and that he is forwarding Francisco’s questions to the city attorney. Francisco is still waiting for a response.
Francisco reached out to neighboring counties to ask how they handle confidential documents. Like Cobb County, most agencies have locked recycle bins and shred the paper.
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