Firm’s records with employee data found in alley

Joe Torres tried to donate some clothing to a Mesa thrift store last month, but instead discovered a criminal’s gold mine.

Nearly 30 employment applications and eligibility documents — many with Social Security numbers, names, driver’s license photos and dates of birth — blowing about and stacked in a Mesa alley.

“A lot of this information is old, but still ... it would be a hey day for someone whose immigration status is questionable,” Torres said. “They would have a real opportunity here.”

The 58-year-old Mesa man found the records around Christmas Day behind U-Care Thrift store, near Stapley Drive and Main Street, where he was trying to drop off donated clothing. Torres noticed the stack after seeing a photocopied driver’s license blowing in the wind.

“I just picked these up and became concerned about them,” Torres said. “I’ve heard and read Arizona is one of the biggest places with a problem for identity theft.”

Torres gave the documents to the Tribune but said he would have otherwise shredded them. Several of the documents were headed “AZ Management and Consulting.”.

The company, related to U-Care Thrift Store, has been seized by the landlord due to the tenant’s failure to pay rent. The store’s owner, Ashley Bungert, said he was “very concerned” to learn the employment applications from his company were sitting in back of his former store.

“I’m like, ‘my God, what was there?’” he said in a phone interview Friday.

Bungert said he is aware of a state law requiring businesses to properly dispose of employees’ personal information and would never dump records outside.

“Anything that may have had a name on it, we shred it, even sales tickets with people’s first names and phone numbers,” Bungert said.

An Arizona law signed by the governor on April 25, 2006, says that entities must redact or destroy records containing employees’ personal information. Failing to do so results in a civil penalty of $100 for a first violation and $1,000 for a second.

“This is one of the pieces of legislation we advocated for because there were no guidelines for document destruction,” said Andrea Esquer, spokeswoman for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Officials said criminals seeking to steal identities in the past often rummaged through trash bins in search of discarded employment documents. Arizona was a year behind California in passing a law to govern employee document destruction.

Bungert said he may have overlooked the documents — which are at least five years old — because he was given only five days before Dec. 14 to collect his belongings and leave the building after his store failed to bring in enough money to pay the rent.

Bungert said he cleaned out his office and took along filing cabinets with all his recent records because he still needs to file federal W-2 income tax forms.

It remains unclear how the documents got into the alley. The Tribune wasn’t able to reach anyone named in the documents.

“We have to wait 60 days before we dispose of any property,” said Ryan Bird, an attorney for the landlord. “I will tell you that this guy by the name of Ashley Bungert pretty much cleaned the place out before we took possession.”

Bird declined to comment if he, his client or anyone they hired has gone into the building, but Bungert said he has received an alarm call from his former security company saying the landlord entered the property.

“They may have entered strictly to take an inventory,” Bird said.

But regardless of who put the documents in the alley, Bungert said he wants them back.

“Those records have to be held onto, especially in today’s world where identity theft is so rampant,” he said.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office recommends that anyone finding records such as those Torres discovered should report them to the attorney general or their county attorney.

The Tribune will turn over the records found to officials this week.