More Grand Forks residents are shredding personal records to shield against identity theft, said local bank and business officials.
To address heightened interest, Citizens Community Credit Union and DocuShred have joined together to provide a free shred day, this year held on Saturday at the credit union’s 32nd Ave. S. location.
Held in Grand Forks for at least three years now, the annual event helps people skip the sometimes tedious work of shredding large amounts of documents at home. The shredding truck used at the event can consume 200 pounds of paper in four minutes, and there’s no limit to the amount people can dispose of that day, said business owners.
More are drawn to the event each year, said Kane Aubol, operations manager of DocuShred.
“People are becoming more aware of anything that has their name written on it,” he said. “Rather than just throw it in the garbage, they’d like to have that stuff destroyed.”
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But people should be concerned about more than leaving a paper trail behind. K.C. Inman, president of Modern Information Systems in Grand Forks, said they should also shred their hard drives, a service offered at his business.
Most turn their drives into the recycling center or just throw them away, but with all of the sensitive information on there, they should consider shredding them, he said.
“There’s more information on that than a piece of paper,” he said.
Private documents such as credit card and bank statements should be shred, of course, but credit card applications should be shred, too, he said.
“People just throw them in the trash, and that’s not a smart thing to do,” he said. “It’s got most of your information on it. If somebody finds it, they can fill it out and send it in for you.”
If you go
What: Shred Day
When: 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Where: Citizens Community Credit Union Grand Forks 2551 32nd Ave. S.
