Another mortgage company has gone bankrupt and left their customers information in the trash. Union Mortgage recently closed it's doors for failing to pay taxes. They then threw all of their private files into the dumpster in the back.

It is hard for a consumer to see if a mortgage company is paying their taxes but if you trust your personal information you should make sure they have a shredding service. That is the only way to know that your identity is shredded instead of piled up and then thrown away.

I came across an add for a fellows "mobile shredder" this morning. Wow I thought, if fellows making a real shredder now instead of just the toy ones? No, what they call a mobile shredder is just one of their toy shredders with four wheels jammed in the bottom. Our copy machine has four wheels but I doubt you would advertise it as a "mobile copier."

The best part is the price. For an office model it is only 1,273.99 at buy.com. $1,273.99! Are you kidding? For that price a service will come out and shred years worth of material. Now add in the $24,000 in labor costs when you shred in-house and fellows should be paying you to take it. As we head into a downturn do you really want a full time shredding person on payroll?

So sit back and enjoy your "mobile office chair" on the beautiful February day.

Beware to anyone buying a shredder at Office Max. Apparently none of the models they sell actually shred paper. This became obvious after it was discovered that Office Max in Naples throws old job applications with social security numbers, addresses, and other personal information into a dumpster behind the store.

If you buy a shredder and hope people assign themselves the extra job of shredding you are a fool. Here was a store with hundreds of shredders sitting around, and not the small ones but the big ones that cost hundreds of dollars, and yet they couldn't be troubled with actually doing the job.

The only document destruction program that is effective is a shredding service that comes by regularly and provides the business with documentation that it was all shredded..