UTAH COMPUTERS STOLEN Deseret News | Documents spill on road, computers stolen:

Documents spill on road, computers stolen

By Pat Reavy

Deseret News
Published: Friday, April 24, 2009 2:23 p.m. MDT

Two incidents of personal information potentially falling into the wrong hands, less than 24 hours apart, kept police busy this week.

Just before noon Thursday, a truck hauling financial documents earmarked to be destroyed had several containers of papers fall out the back at the intersection of 9000 South and the Bangerter Highway when a lock on the rear door failed, said West Jordan police Sgt. Drew Sanders. The containers broke open when they hit the street, scattering documents everywhere, he said.

It took a dozen officers and 15 public works employees about an hour to round up all the loose papers.

"There were a lot of documents," Sanders said.

Officials believe they were able to collect all of the forms. The Recall company was conducting an inventory Friday to make sure it had them all, Sanders said.

If any motorists or residents find a financial document in the street or one that blew into their yard, they should contact police at 801-840-4000.

In a separate incident, Salt Lake police were looking for the person who threw a rock through the front glass door of State Farm Insurance, 631 W. North Temple, just after 1:30 a.m. Friday. Two laptop computers were taken.

But State Farm agent Paul Arguello said that, without the passwords to get into the computers and connect to the main server, the laptops were "unusable."

"No private information can get out," he said.

It's the second time in four years someone has broken through the front glass to steal computers, Arguello said.

Anyone with information on the computer thefts can call police at 801-799-INFO (4636).