If you have ever done business or worked at the U-Care Thrift store in Mesa you might want to keep a close eye on your credit report. The reason is that the store was recently discovered to have boxes of employment applications sitting behind their location. And how was this discovered? Joe Torres found copies of drivers licenses blowing down the alley as he was donating clothes.

This is not only a violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) but an Arizona law that requires businesses to destroy records containing employees’ personal information. However, the penalty is a paltry $100 fine for a first violation and only $1,000 for a second.

The owner said that they shred everything but clearly that is not the case. Just another example where a few dollars for a shredding service would have saved the business and the employees.