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Featured in November 1, 2007 print edition

Identity theft is absolutely the number one growing crime in America," said Chesterfield County Police Department crime prevention officer D. Zeheb.

In a partnership with local business Shred-It, and some volunteer help from the CCPD’s Explorers program, local residents had a free opportunity at Chesterfield Towne Center last Saturday to dispose up to four boxes of personal papers that may have put them at risk in having their identity stolen if just thrown away in the trash. A Shred-It truck continued to hum through the mid-morning until 2 p.m. turning those papers into confetti to be recycled into items like toilet paper and other paper products.

"It’s a great event for folks that have stuff at home to shred...Many times, people’s identities are stolen from things thrown in the trash, like old credit card statements and bank statements," Zeheb said. "This will help cut down on identity thefts in our area."

Explorer volunteers Thomas Totty, a James River High School student, and Rebecca McCartney, a LC Bird High School student, helped residents carry the weighted-down boxes from the car to the Shred-It truck. "It’s better than someone else getting a hold of them and doing something you don’t want them to do," McCartney said.

Totty agreed, recalling a family member being robbed of $500 through a paper trail when he was younger. "It can turn out to be very bad," he said.

For long-time resident Joe Nance, a graduate of Huguenot High School and World War II veteran, having a place to dispose of these types of paper was a great timesaver not to pass up. "If you have ever taken one of these small shredders at your house and try to shred these things for yourself, it takes forever," Nance said. "It can take a whole day to shred one year of cancelled checks."

"This is very good. It saves a lot of time. I brought three and a half Ukrop’s bags full and two bags for a friend of mine," he said.

Resident Charles Kehoe was more than happy to rid himself of a few boxes of paper. "It’s really great for those who have a garage filled with papers. It recycles and it gets young people involved. The Chesterfield County Police Department truly provides multiple services," Kehoe said.

Shred-It sales representative Joshua Bennett, who noted that Shred-It is the only company that does on-site residential shredding, has to say business is growing as more people become aware of how to prevent identity theft, and at the same time, are being environmentally friendly . Shred-It serves more than the home-based businesses and understands there are those that need stuff to be shredded on an individual basis, he stated. After experiencing identity theft when a credit card number was stolen off an Internet site, Bennett advocates how important it is to protect those personal numbers. Shred-It provides another opportunity for protection.

"I love the fact that it’s great security to the clients...It all gets recycled into low-grade paper products," he said. Since the recycling process for the low-grade products is already sorted down to the paper level, Shred-It employee operators take clients’ documents in the box, bag or container and directly pour the paper to be munched, crunched and crisscross-torn into thousands of little pieces in a shredder that is enclosed in at least three-fourths of a mid-sized truck.

"The amount of boxes, over the course of a year, is thousands upon thousands of boxes," he said. "It’s a good mix of home offices and residents."

This is the second time shred event this year. The next event will be announced in the spring. For those with "tax records dating back to 1984 and are not sure what to do with them," visit http://www.shredit.com/_minisites/richmond/contact.asp

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