College Park responds after hundreds of pages of confidential documents found in recycling bin

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — More people are coming forward to confirm they found hundreds of pages of government documents in a public recycling dumpster last month.

Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco was back in College Park on Tuesday, where she talked to a man who helped through the documents on June 30.

“There were social security numbers, there were copies of checks and routing numbers and vender information, and that was disturbing,” Dom Kelly said.

Kelly is part of the group of College Park attorneys, business owners and managers who say they dug the documents out of the public place and took them to an agent at the Georgia Attorney General’s Office on July 10.

“We had four days of holiday,” said Kelly.

He said the group then got ahold of the AG’s office and scheduled to drop them off with an agent the next Wednesday.

The City of College Park released a statement this week announcing it will launch its own investigation into the discovery.

The statement said, “These documents were discovered, yet not shared or turned into the City of College Park, or College Park Police Department for well over a week.”

“It’s upsetting, even the impression, that the city is trying to deflect this upon citizens,” said Van Orden.

According to a statement by city officials:

“If these are, in fact, City of College Park documents, there is a strict and detailed shredding and destruction protocol for any confidential documents leaving City Hall or being recycled.”

The statement said violating that intentionally could lead to criminal charges.