Documents with personal information found around LSU Lakes

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Below the interstate at Dalrymple and along the sidewalk, there are documents strewn about with personal information - names, account numbers and addresses just lying around for anyone to pick up.

But that's not all.  9 News found court documents, some with social security numbers, bank statements complete with account numbers, even a Mastercard account number.

Many of the documents we picked up had an "Eaton Group" stamp at the bottom, which led us to the downtown law firm.

Greg Eaton says the documents came from his office.  He is the owner of Eaton Group, a law firm that has been providing collection services in Louisiana since 1986.

He says all the documents were once involved in court cases that have since ended.  Now the documents is trash that was left to be picked up by the firm's cleaning company, Jani-King.

"They're supposed to dispose of it, obviously, and not along the side of the interstate so past that, I can't tell you," said Eaton.

When asked why the papers weren't shredded, Eaton replied, "A lot of this is public record."

Police say this kind of information, in the hands of criminals, could lead to some big problems.

"They can mess up your credit and from there, they can actually take all the money out of your account at your bank and you will be left with no funds," said Corporal L'Jean McKneely.  "They use your social security number to open up different accounts at different stores."

Calls to Jani-King were not returned.

Copyright 2011 WAFB. All rights reserved.