I-Team: Personal items left in cars SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (WWLP) – From the glove compartment to the trunk, your car may seem like a safe place to store your personal items but you may want to think again. Your vehicle can be a gold mine for identity thieves and yet, people still leave personal items behind when their car gets junked. Bill Johnson, the President of the Statewide Towing Association says they see it all. “Some things? It’s called everything, we’ve had people leave their drivers license, the title to their vehicle,” Johnson said. To show the 22News I-Team what he’s talking about, he let us go through cars in impound. “There’s some stuff in the center console here,” Johnson said while going through one of the cars. You name it, I-Team found it. “They bank at Greenfield Bank; Here’s some prescription information, name address; I have pay stubs, prescription bottles, a doctors note.” Just sifting through cars, we were able to learn not only who drove the car last, but we got banking information, social security numbers, medical records and could even tell who has little ones at home by the car seats left behind. “You know if someone wanted to dupe her identity there’s probably enough here they probably could do something,” Johnson said. One car not only had personal paperwork, but also an old Oxycontin prescription with name and prescription number, an old set of keys and a cell phone. Some tow companies will shred and dispose of these items properly but it’s important to note they’re not required by law to do that. What’s scary is when tow companies don’t clean them out, the personal items stay in the car and end up in the hands of whoever buys it. “Here’s a copy of the title that’s in the car, so if someone wanted to apply for a lost title, you have all the information,” said Johnson. This is just people who choose to leave items behind. Johnson suggests never leaving these personal items in your car in case it’s stolen or broken into.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 03:12:23 +0000
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