Wichita company exposes thousands of identities

March 21, 2011|By Michael Schwanke | KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

Brian Gordon

(WICHITA, Kan.) —

A call to FactFinder 12 leads to the discovery of thousands of personal documents dumped in a Wichita alley.

Lone Star Business Solutions, a third party payroll and human resource company for Lone Star restaurants, dumped the documents in a large dumpster behind its building in downtown Wichita.

FactFinder 12 found thousands of personal documents including W-4 forms, employee applications, and employee files. Almost all the forms have Social Security numbers, addresses, and phone numbers from across the country.

Most of the documents are dated 2004-2005 and were left overnight in the unsecured dumpster. There were too many to count, but conservative estimates put the number in the thousands.

The man who called FactFinder 12 said the company filled several dumpsters like the one we found.

We confirmed that with Waste Connections. A spokesperson tells us the company hauled out at least three of the dumpsters, but was not aware that personal documents were inside. Waste Connections says it took the paper to a recycle plant.

FactFinder 12 tried getting a response from both companies. We wanted to know how it happened, and how they plan to protect their employees’ identities going forward.

Jan Dietrich, chief operating officer of Lone Star Business Solutions, left a voicemail that said “Our office doesn’t have a comment on whatever you’re investigating.”

We also called Lone Star headquarters in Texas. Marketing spokesperson Howard Terry also told us “no comment.”

FactFinder 12 called police who responded and took a report. The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office and Social Security Administration are also looking into the matter, but the company doesn’t appear to have broken any laws.

The Social Security Administration plans to talk to the company. Authorities say laws aren’t broken until someone uses the information.

We called several employees whose information was exposed.

Sean Monikowski is one of them. He lives in Pennsylvania and was surprised to get a call from a TV station in Wichita.

“I was outraged my data was out there in the age of identity theft,” says Monikowski.” He has a message for the company.

“Clean up your act...it's unacceptable. The law will finally come down on you. Imagine if someone had stolen my identity. I could go after this company legally for their irresponsible behavior,” says Monikowski.

Monikowski, like other employees, is wondering what to do next.

Experts we talked to say if you’re an employee or former employee of Lone Star Steakhouse you should monitor your credit closely.

Kansas has restaurants in Hutchinson, Garden City, and Kansas City and FactFinder 12 found information on several Kansas employees in the dumpster.

You can also call the Lone Star Steakhouse headquarters at (972) 295-8600 to see what the company is willing to do.

To reach Jan Dietrich with Lone Star Business Solutions call (316) 719-2257.

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