KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasLocal Man Finds Dumpster Full of Personal Documents
Protecting your identity is hard enough without someone dumping all of your personal information where anyone can find it.
Unfortunately, this happens all too often in the Las Vegas Valley. A local man recently found thousands of documents with personal information outside of a realty company.
It isn't yet clear if someone broke the law. There is a federal rule that requires documents with personal information be destroyed, and Metro is looking into that.
"It was just a free buffet feast for identity theft thieves," said the local man. He discovered the documents in a dumpster on South Decatur Boulevard.
He didn't want the I-Team to identify him. "They were all kinds of financial documents. People's lives. Their complete economic life," he continued.
Documents containing people's names, social security numbers and other personal data were overflowing from the dumpster.
The unidentified man says garbage from that area often blows into his neighborhood. So, before it could happen again, he took pictures of the loose papers and filed another complaint.
"What I seen with my own eyes were loan agreements, mobile home registration..." He called Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian and city code enforcement, and Metro police came out and hauled away the documents.
The unidentified neighbor says some of the papers appeared to come from First Interstate Mortgage, which is next door to the dumpster.
Greg Navone owns both companies.
"I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe that a businessman could treat his customers' financial life history that way," said the unidentified neighbor.
The I-Team tried to find Navone, but didn't find him. He wasn't at his realty office next to the dumpster.
But the I-Team did find two copies of a mortgage loan document with the applicant's name and address. The document sat in front of the First Interstate Mortgage office, on top of garbage bags filled with shredded documents.
When the I-Team waited in the mortgage company office for an interview, we overheard an independent loan officer say he believed a non-English speaking janitor may have accidentally thrown away that loan document.
The question now is how could a janitor have access to such sensitive information?
Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Adrienne Augustus.
