BBB Shreds 7.5 Tons Of Sensitive Documents At 'Shred Day'

St. Louis, Mo., April 27, 2010 – Businesses and consumers shredded more than 7.5 tons of documents on Saturday, April 17, at a Shred Day co-sponsored by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). A record 383 consumers brought boxes and bags containing 15,030 pounds of documents to the event.

In addition to the BBB, co-sponsors included the Missouri Attorney General’s office, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Shred-It, a Securit company, donated free shredding services.

Michael Baldi, owner of Baldi Electric in north St. Louis County, was the first in line at the event, held on the parking lot of Saint Louis Galleria. Baldi brought three bins of old receipts and invoices to destroy safely. “I found it helpful,” he said.

“This is a good thing,” said Alta Fink of Creve Coeur, who took advantage of the free shredding to get rid of old papers. A friend alerted her to the event.

Gail Davis of St. Louis County said the event was a perfect way to dispose of papers left by her mother, who recently passed away. James Chappell of Northwoods said he was shredding documents going back to the 1950s.

“Shredding outdated documents is an essential step in preventing identity theft,” said Michelle L. Corey, BBB president and CEO. “Failure to secure papers with personal or financial information leads to thousands of identity fraud cases each year.”

For more information on protecting your identity, contact the BBB at 314-645-3300 or www.bbb.org. A guide to documents that should be retained is available at http://www.bbb.org/us/Identity-Theft-Resources/.

Contacts: Michelle Corey, President & CEO, 314-645-3300, mcorey@stlouisbbb.org or Tracy Hardgrove, Vice President, Operations & Administration, 314-645-3300, thardgrove@stlouisbbb.org