A Bay Area woman named Kara got an upsetting call the morning of Oct. 22.
The caller said she had found Kara's 2007 tax return lying in a pile with hundreds of others on the ground in front of an abandoned Jackson Hewitt tax preparation office at 1734 Divisadero St. in San Francisco.
The tax returns were damp, meaning they had been out at least overnight. Kara, who did not want her last name used because she is worried about her privacy, was unable to reach anyone at Jackson Hewitt's headquarters in New Jersey or the San Francisco office, which had recently closed and moved a block up the street. So she called the San Francisco Police Department.
The woman who called Kara told me she had gone for coffee that morning when she noticed "this big pile of paper and two lockboxes. They looked like tax returns. There were at least a couple hundred individual files."
The exposed papers had Social Security numbers, W-2 forms, names, addresses and phone numbers. She picked one from the top, saw Kara's name and gave her a call. She did not want to be identified but gave The Chronicle permission to use photos she shot at the scene.
Tenant evicted
The caller also phoned the police, then ran off to do an errand. A short while later she came back and found Officer Mark Gallegos, who had been trying to get in touch with the real estate broker whose name was on the building.
Steve Bach, the broker trying to lease the building, said the Jackson Hewitt franchisee had been evicted for nonpayment of rent.
Bach said building owner Jack Abrass had been unable to get his former tenant, Lionel Mayrand, to remove "some remaining junk," including two shredding boxes and two sealed bags of paper. Finally, the owner's wife called a shredding company, which promised to pick up the items at noon on Oct. 20. When the shredders hadn't arrived by 1:30 or 1:45, Barbara Abrass called them and "they suggested I put it out by the front door. They said they would be by within an hour and a half," she said.
Abrass dragged the boxes and bags outside and left. "I never looked in the bags. I had no idea what was in there," she said.
When Bach got the call from the police, he needed to call someone he could trust to pick up the tax returns, because neither he nor Abrass live close by. So he called his locksmith, who picked up the papers and took them to his garage.
On Tuesday, Bach went to Jackson Hewitt's new office and said he had the papers. "They said bring them over anytime," Bach said. The next day Bach and the locksmith delivered the papers to the office.
Too heavy to lift
Mayrand confirmed that he was evicted from his former office and moved out Sept. 10. He said he left the boxes and bags behind because "they were so heavy I couldn't lift them." He said he "edited" his files and that "every record (left behind) was over four years old."
Mayrand said his name was on the lease at the old office but that he only manages the franchise, which is owned by another man, whose identity could not be verified.
Mayrand said the tax returns "shouldn't have been out there," but he didn't feel responsible for them. "As far as I was concerned they were properly disposed of."
Kara said when she called Jackson Hewitt's corporate office last week to report the incident, she was told they would investigate it. But the company has not provided her with details or answered her request for free credit monitoring. Kara, the woman who called her, Abrass and Bach said they have not been contacted as part of the firm's investigation.
California's privacy breach notice law requires companies and federal agencies to notify state residents when their unencrypted personal information is or may have been acquired by an unauthorized person. But the law applies only to electronic records, not paper ones, says Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Although the law does not require it, many companies provide free credit monitoring services to people whose privacy has been breached.
Jackson Hewitt would not say whether it has contacted anyone whose tax returns might have been lying on Divisadero.
In an e-mailed statement, it said, "Jackson Hewitt takes the issue of privacy very seriously and we are looking into this matter fully. The company expects its franchisees, which independently own and operate their businesses, to comply with the terms of their franchise agreements. Accordingly, they are responsible for conducting their operations in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including those designed to safeguard the privacy and financial records of each client."
David Weselcouch, a company spokesman, said, "We engaged the client very shortly after hearing about the complaint." But he added, "It's important that the local franchisee engage the client. It's our understanding that the franchisee has made several attempts" to reach her.
Kara said she has not heard from Mayrand.
California Civil Code says businesses should take "reasonable steps" to dispose or arrange for the disposal of customer records (including paper ones) by shredding, erasing or making them unreadable. A customer injured by a violation of this code can file a civil suit to recover damages.
Givens says in this case, "there is the potential for harm" but unless there is actual harm, "it is difficult to sue."
E-mail Kathleen Pender at kpender@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/04/MNCS1LQB95.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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