LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - March 18, 2011) - The Automobile Club of Southern California and ProtectMyID.com offered by Experian, are hosting a free Shred-a-Thon to help deter identity theft for Los Angeles residents.
The free on-site shredding Spring cleaning event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 26, at Dodger Stadium, 1000 Elysian Park Ave., Los Angeles, 90012. Motorists should enter the stadium from Stadium Way to Elysian Park Avenue. From there, enter the Sunset Gate A, and then Lot 1.
Auto Club members and residents are invited to bring up to 5 banker boxes or 5 paper grocery bags filled with junk mail, old income tax forms and personal papers that may contain names, birth dates and account numbers to the stadium for recycling.
Residents may also bring old computers, monitors, cameras, cell phones, and microwave ovens to recycle in another truck courtesy of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.
More than 11 million Americans were victims of identity theft last year, a 37 percent increase from 2008, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, a California firm that studied identity theft threats. The Javelin survey also showed that thieves stole $54 billion from identity theft victims of all ages and 18 to 24-year-olds who are active online were most at risk for ID theft.
"The community event during the first week of spring will highlight the importance of destroying personal information properly, a critical step in guarding one's identity, along with drawing attention to recycling," said Denise Bialek, program manager of AAA Discounts.
Plastic bags and binders, folders, computer disks, laminated paper, or other non-paper materials should be removed prior to attending the Shred-a-Thon. All shredded material will be recycled.
Auto Club staff will greet drivers. Certified Cintas workers will load documents into 64 gallon bins, which are dumped into trucks customized to shred large volumes of documents into pin-sized bits. Banker boxes and paper bags also will be collected for shredding and recycling as well. (One Shred-a-Thon visit per person, please.)
The first 1,200 vehicles to visit the Shred-a-Thon will receive one blue canvas Auto Club tote bag to help reduce plastic bag use.
Contact Information:
Contact:
Elaine Beno/Jeffrey Spring
714-885-2324