KWCH - Kansas News and Weather - Company Uses Shredded Checks to Pack Products
Member Center:
by Alana Rocha(SALINA, Kan.)
It keeps the goods you order intact. But some packing material a Texas company used could destroy your credit and leave you broke.
The McBride family, out of Salina, ordered some 'Cowboy Candy' from a WHH Ranch Company in Texas. When the box arrived Friday, they pulled out the peppers and surrounding it, found a sweet package for any identity thief.
"I was just in shock. I couldn't believe they were using shredded up checks as packing material," said Michelle McBride.
So Michelle and her step daughter Amelia started piecing it all together and found out they were right.
WHH Ranch uses its local bank's shredded checks to cushion their jars. They're checks from hospitals, medicare, schools, businesses, personal accounts, even government agencies.
WHH Ranch Company owner Billie Hamzy says, "We've been doing it so long. We are all out of sorts about it because it's so out of place for something like this to happen."
Hamzy says in the roughly 20 years his company's used the bank's shredded paper, the McBrides are the first customers to notice.
"That he knows of. How does he know he doesn't have a particular customer who is doing this to get this information," Michelle said.
It's information the McBrides found is not too hard to unravel. Michelle says, it's "very easy. You look at the colors, then you get the routing numbers and the bank information."
"We didn't piece any of this together. We just taped it to hold it all together. None of this is torn through at all," Amelia said.
"You get the wrong people getting this information, they could have a hay day with one box, a hay day and a shopping trip. It's scary." Michelle said.
A scary deal no one wants to buy into and one the company says it's no longer putting out there.
The McBrides say they plan to destroy the checks. WHH Ranch says it will no longer use the Bank of San Jacinto County's shredded paper. We tried to reach the bank to ask about the process, but didn't get a call back.
We did talk to some area banks about how they handle customers' checks after they've been processed. They couldn't go into detail for security reasons. They did say many banks cross-shred checks so they can't be pieced together. They're then disposed of securely.
