The Spartanburg County Treasurer says he will change how his office disposes of property tax notices after hundreds of the documents were found in a dumpster.
A citizen who wished to remain anonymous notified WSPA of the discovery Friday morning. Hundreds of the tax records were plainly visible, lying on top of a heap of paper materials inside an open, blue recycling dumpster on Alba Court. The recycling center is across the street from the county government complex.
The vehicle tax notices appear to mostly be those of taxpayers who had a high mileage appeal. They also appear to be all from July 2010. They contain taxpayers' names, addresses, vehicle make and model and year, vehicle identification number, tag number, and amount of taxes owed. Most of that information can be obtained online on county websites, except for the VIN and the tag number.
Some of the tax notices also have the taxpayer's signature and list their insurance company.
Ken Walter, a private investigator with Carolina Investigations, says a creative crook could use the information to identify a wealthy individual and make them the target of a scam or a burglary.
"If the thief wanted to set up some type of insurance scam where he fakes an automobile accident, he could use this to find a person who has good insurance and he would know if they have money because he could see what kind of car they drive and where they live," said Walter.
Spartanburg County Treasurer Oren Brady III says he knew nothing about the records being dumped until WSPA brought them to his attention.
"I was under the assumption the janitorial staff was shredding them or disposing of them properly," said Brady. "This kind of stuff does not need to be lying around."
He says he does not know for how long tax notices were being dumped in the recycle box.
"I will talk to the custodial staff who about shredding them," says Brady. "If they are not able to do it for some reason, I will have my staff do it."
He says his office shreds other documents with sensitive information on it, like copies of checks and anything containing a social security number.
Shortly after WSPA found the documents, a county recycling truck arrived to empty the dumpster -- so the tax notices were removed and are no longer there.
Brady says he will see to it that none take their place.
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