Help! Someone stole our shredded documents this morning?

Question

My husband put out the trash and had our shredded financial records in a clear bag. This morning three of the four bags were missing. What can I do at this point to protect us?

It was in strips, not cross cut

Answer 1

If you are really worried, you should contact your financial institutions and put them on alert for possible identity theft. Cancel your credit cards and get replacements and change all of your passwords. Shredding is usually a good process to protect data, but if you are concerned take the above steps.

Answer 2

Putting shredded material in the trash in a clear bag is the same as putting up a big sign that says, "Important! Read me first!" Strip cut and cross cut paper can be reasembled by software or sent to china and put together for pennies.

Either mix your shreds in with your wet garbage or move to a shredding service who blend your paper with thousands of tons of other shredding before it is recycled.

Answer 3

You should buy a cross-cut paper shredder! It's much more secure.

I'd recommend that you just keep a close eye on all of your finances. Watch out for any unauthorized withdrawls or charges.

You should also monitor your credit report to make sure no one opens any new accounts in your name. You can check your credit report for free once per year at www.annualcreditreport.com.

Just be vigilant and don't worry too much. The bags might have just blown away. Shredded paper is pretty lightweight.

Answer 4

If it was cross-cut, you probably don't have too much to worry about - unless they are meth heads, they most likely wont have the patience to put things back together. Even for a meth head, cross cut would be a stretch.
If it was just strips, it would be a lot more possible (although time consuming) to put them together.
Contact your banks etc. They can most likely advise you on further action to take.
Call the police as well, if you think it may be something more than a harmless prank.

Answer 5

Try to remember what was shredded and notify the companies or financial institutions there may be a security issue.

Then go out and buy yourself a cross-cut paper shredder instead of a regular one.

Answer 6

Contact local constable about a possible identity theft.

Then get together the phone numbers of all your financial relations and call them about a possible identity theft.

The constable and your financial relations (banks, credit, rent...) will advise you of their policy on this matter..

You are never supposed to shred documents/records and throw them out!!!!

I always burn and crush them, or i chemically wipe them clean (bleach works wonders)

There are programs nowadays that stitch together scanned pictures of individual shreded strips into whole documents.

Answer 7

Find who did it, go to their home, accidently drop a burning cigarette onto an easy to ignite area... They will not get too far with them...
Come back with s'mores ingredients if you like.

In all honesty though, that sucks, and I could not give you any advice without knowing what kinds of financial papers these were. Are any of them policies that perhaps you could get numbers changed? Credit card stuff that could be put together? If you feel there is potential danger or access to accounts, I would phone immediately to have stops placed and order new cards, etc.
Good luck,... and if all else fails, don't forget I gave you that first idea. :)

Answer 8

Next time put the shreds in with dog poo in a dark bag. Or do I need to tell you that?

Answer 9

You said the documents were shredded already. You shred them so that when someone tries to steal your information, it is not (easily) possible. You did, so there is nothing to worry about.

Assuming your shredder is not the type that just makes ribbons, but the type that makes very small pieces, I would not worry about it.

Answer 10

You can't do anything at this point, and chances are you don't need to worry.
Same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago, and I confronted the scoundrels. They were apologetic and said they were mailing Christmas gifts and thought my shreds would make good and cheap stuffing for the packages. Makes sense.