A month after sensitive veterans’ records from Arlington National Cemetery were found in an abandoned Virginia storage unit, more government documents have surfaced in an auctioned-off storage unit in Michigan last week.
Two men who purchased a storage unit during an auction in Elmwood Township, Mich., said the unit contained documents with personal information including claims filed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Texas following 2005’s Hurricane Rita, as well as a laptop registered to FEMA and car loan applications.
The unit had been rented in 2009 to a Traverse City man who worked for a FEMA subcontractor in 2005 and currently works for a car dealership. Lawrence Betz and William Petersen bought the contents of the unit for $500 in October, discovering the financial records for more than 300 people and car loan applications for the years 2006 to 2008.
"It's everything you would need to become that person and assume their identity," Petersen said. "It's pretty scary."
The documents and laptop were found at West Bay Self Storage in Leelanau County. FEMA made arrangements last week to pick up the computer and representatives for the agency said it is taking potential breaches of private information very seriously.
"If it is determined that any personal information was mishandled, we will take appropriate actions, including notifying authorities, as well as any individuals who may have been impacted," Rachel Racusen, a FEMA spokeswoman, said in a statement.
On June 10, a self storage manager of a Northern Virginia facility came across 69 boxes of Arlington National Cemetery burial records inside an abandoned storage unit. The discovery triggered a criminal investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives which says the incident raised questions of privacy issues and indicates another sign of management problems at the Army-run cemetery. The records contained full names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth of veterans and family members buried with them. The Boxes of copies of grave cards used to record burials were apparently given to a contractor who has supposed to help create a database of burials. Army criminal investigators seized the files, and a determination was made that there was a “low” risk of privacy concerns, said Kathryn Condon, executive director of the Army National Cemeteries Program.
Sources Used:
“Docs Filed With FEMA Turn Up in Michigan Storage Unit.” Westport News. July 19, 2011.
Gonzalez, Tony. “Sensitive Veteran Records From Arlington Cemetery Discovered in Abandoned Storage Unit.” Self Storage Industry News. June 24, 2011.