Sensitive personal data tossed in the trash

By Abigail Goldman

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

A nosy neighbor looking for illegal trash spotted 40 boxes in a Dumpster on Decatur Boulevard - a closer look revealed financial paperwork that could have been an "identity theft buffet."

He called city officials, who called police, who determined the boxes contained sensitive financial information and hauled them away before they could fall into the wrong hands.

Now the boxes are sitting in a police impound waiting for someone to decide what to do with them and just whose problem it is.

The boxes were discovered Dec. 20 discarded in a Dumpster at 811 S. Decatur Blvd.

The neighbor who discovered the boxes has had problems with loose rubbish and litter around the office building's trash bin before, so when he noticed the financial papers sitting out in the open, he called City of Las Vegas Code Enforcement officials.

He also informed City Councilman Lois Tarkanian, who sent her liaison, Robin Munier, to check out the Dumpster while she finished up a Council meeting.

By the time Tarkanian arrived, Munier and the City Code Enforcement officials were standing around the Dumpster with Metro Police.

It was clear to everyone, Tarkanian said, that the boxes could not be left in the Dumpster and the police should haul them away.

"I looked at the boxes, and I will tell you I was shocked," she said. "To let them float around like that. Imagine who had their whole lives in there."

A box that was immediately visible contained paperwork with bank account details, photocopies of driver's licences, Social Security numbers and other private information, Tarkanian said.

The councilwoman estimated the boxes contained thousands of people's personal information.

Metro Police spokesman Bill Cassell described the boxed documents as "the type of information you would submit if you were applying for a loan or a mortgage."

Police called mortgage broker Gregory Navone to the scene. Navone is president of two companies registered to the Decatur address, First Interstate Reality Inc. and BNG LLC, according to the Nevada Secretary of State Web site. Navone has another business, First Interstate Mortgage, just down the street.

"I don't know what was in those boxes," Navone said a week later. "I am not clear who put them there."

Photographs acquired by the Sun from the evening the boxes were seized show at least one document reportedly pulled from the Dumpster bearing Navone's name and phone number, handwritten.

Presented with a photograph of the document, Navone said he doubted the paper was really seized from the Dumpster and suggested it had been stolen from his office. He added that the document contained no private information.

Tarkanian called the impounded boxes a triumph of teamwork between her Ward 1 residents, city officials and police.

In the past 10 years, there have been six "correction notices" given to property owners for loose trash and rubbish coming from the office building. This was the first time anyone had noticed sensitive information was being thrown away, Tarkanian said.

"I think it's totally unbelievable," she said. "What type of company would do that to you? This was Decatur Boulevard, for goodness sake. There's a lot of things happening on Decatur Boulevard."

It remains to be seen what - if anything - will come of the discarded boxes.

Metro Police are not investigating the incident any further because it does not appear to be a violation of any city or county laws, Cassell said.

The police have informed federal authorities of the impounded boxes, he said, and are holding them now for "safekeeping."

David Staretz, a spokesman for the FBI's Las Vegas field office, said the local bureau was unaware of the Dumpster discovery.

Nevada attorney general's office spokesman Nicole Moon said her office was also unaware of the impounded boxes. Moon pointed out that Nevada Revised Statutes require businesses to take "responsible measures" to destroy documents containing personal information, such as a Social Security number or driver's license.

Katherine Armstrong, an attorney from the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Affairs, which regulates mortgage companies, also had not heard of the dumped boxes but was eager to learn more.

Leaving the boxes in a Dumpster could be a violation of the federal Disposal Rule, which requires "proper disposal of information in consumer reports and records" by mortgage brokers and similar businesses, Armstrong said.

"It is critical whoever has jurisdiction over this to find out exactly what was dumped," Armstrong said.

On Thursday, about a week after the boxes were discovered, the Dumpster was empty and a For Sale sign was posted outside the Decatur Boulevard building.