Powell Hopes To Curb Dumpster Diving To Protect Residents’ Personal Information

Sixteen people living on the same street fell victim to identity theft within weeks of each other, and city officials want to make sure it does not happen to others, 10TV’s Kevin Landers reported Tuesday.

Powell City Council members want to curb people from Dumpster diving for personal information. Unlike in other cities, it is not illegal to dig through people’s trash in Powell.

Resident William Souder said that he shreds his personal information.

Even shredding did not protect Souder from identity thieves, Landers reported.

Six credit cards were opened in Souder’s name in the past 24 hours, and thieves used his name to buy cell phones at two Walmart stores in Oklahoma City and in Akron, Souder said.

“They set up three phone lines and they had purchased equipment along with the setting up of the lines,” Souder said.

According to police, 11 home owners reported their identity stolen since January.

One resident reported that someone charged more than $8,000 in merchandise in her name.

Resident David Loughery said that he kept getting bills in the mail.

“Then, one day, I got a Best Buy bill in the mail, a Menards bill, a Lowe’s bill, and I’m opening these up and the Best Buy was like $6,000,” Loughery said.

Police said that they did not know why all the victims were from one street.

“We were very surprised that they would come out of one neighborhood,” Police Chief Gary Vest said. “Many of our victims say they shred their banking statements.”

Detectives said that so far, nothing connects the victims. The thefts now involved police from 35 states, Landers reported.

Police said that they believed some of the identities were stolen because some people post their information on Facebook.

Vest said that he hoped to present legislation banning Dumpster driving to the council within the next month.

Souder said that he was frustrated that the companies who approved the purchases never bothered to check if it was really him.

“That’s the part that I found most shocking in the last 24 hours, because it leaves me as the consumer not trusting them.” Souder said.

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