Indianapolis—
Fox59 News found everything needed to steal someone's identity, out in the open in the middle of a busy grocery store parking lot. A woman who was looking for discarded coupons made the disturbing discovery in a Fishers dumpster. She didn't know what to do, so she called Fox59 News.Wayne Baker said filling out a job application seemed harmless.
"Any time you want to even fill out an application for a job you have to give them a ton of information about yourself. You just gotta have faith that they're going to do the right things with them," Baker said.
Most would never think their personal information would end up in a dumpster. Fox59 found hundreds of employees files inside a recycling dumpster in Fishers. The files were full of copies of social security cards, driver's licenses, birth certificates and lots of other personal information. Information that anyone could have grabbed.
Baker said he was surprised to get the call his information had been found.
"All that stuff, he just threw it away," he said.
When Fox59 went through the folders, we found information on employees who used to work for KB Pizza, who at one time owned Domino's Pizza stores throughout Indiana and a few in nearby states. Baker said his job at the Geist Domino's was a summer gig before college.
A spokesperson for Domino's told Fox59 that the company terminated the contract for KB Pizza about a month ago for a lot of reasons, including outstanding debts. The spokesperson said they do not know how those files ended up in that dumpster, but they had no part in them being put there and are also looking into what happened.
KB Pizza no longer owns or operates any Domino's stores. However, KB Pizza is still listed as an active business with the Secretary of State. The owner is listed as Kevin Barber. The address listed on checks and other documents in the files we found are for a mailbox inside a UPS store. That store is in the same shopping center where the files were dumped. Barber's home is about two miles away from the dumpster, on the water in Geist. Fox59 News went to the home to get answers, but no one responded. The family who lives in that home seems to be in the process of moving.
Abby Kuzma with the Attorney General's office said Indiana law requires business owners to protect their employees' identities.
"Employers need to know that you do have obligations under the law. You can't just dispose of information, private information of your employees in a dumpster," Kuzma said.
The Attorney General's office is now launching their own investigation into KB Pizza to find out how the files ended up in the dumpster and to figure out who put them there. Kuzma said KB Pizza's is still obligated to these employees.
"They need to notify these individuals as well. If we find out they haven't notified properly as is required under the law then we can go against them for that as well."
Baker looked through his employee file, surprised at all that was in there.
"The file that I got had everything from my insurance information, copy of my license, social security card, address," he said.
Baker plans to take all the proper steps to protect himself, but for now he can only do one thing.
"Just hope. Just hope that no one got a hold of any of my information they can use," he said.
If you think your identity has been compromised, the Indiana Attorney General’s website has an identity theft kit you can go through to protect yourself.
