Homebuilder leaves town and leaves customers’ personal information out in the open
A Maricopa Meadows homeowner got more than he bargained for when he went to inquire about warranty work on his year-old home yesterday afternoon.
Raymond Shaban, who lives in the Fiesta community, stopped by the Frontier Homes sales office, located at the corner of Miller Way and Keller Drive in the neighboring Celebration development, around 2:30 pm. Instead of seeing the sales reps he had gotten to know over the past year, he found an empty trailer. And that wasn’t all!
A couple of desks, a filing cabinet, some helium tanks, and more were sitting in the parking lot outside the sales trailer. Shaban decided to look around to see what had been left behind. When he opened up the two-drawer filing cabinet, much to his surprise, he found it still full of customer files. The files included social security numbers, bank statements, customers’ financial information, and copies of checks. Shaban even found his own file amongst them. Shaban immediately called the Maricopa Police, then the local news media.
First on the scene was Jessi Tellez, co-owner of 8523mine.com, a local news and information forum. Tellez had a personal interest as she and her husband Tony were in the process of purchasing a home in Fiesta, from Turner-Dunn Homes, back in 2004 when that builder abruptly halted construction and eventually filed bankruptcy. Frontier Homes took over the communities in 2007 and building resumed.
Several desks and cabinets, plus some helium tanks, were left abandoned in the parking lot of the Frontier Homes sales office in Maricopa Meadows. The two-drawer cabinet on the left was full of customer files which included residents’ personal and financial information, (Photo by Sam McCallie)
Maricopa Police arrived on scene, took custody of the files, and began calling the owners to come pick them up. (Photo by Sam McCallie)
Maricopa Meadows residents Juan and Susan Sanchez examine their customer file which contained their personal information. The file was one of many left out in the Frontier Homes sales office parking lot. (Photo by Sam McCallie)
While waiting for the Police to arrive, Tellez and some others discovered a dumpster behind the trailer. The dumpster was filled to the top with house plans, sales literature, miscellaneous paperwork, and an unknown number of more customer files. Witnesses said that a computer, with an apparently intact hard drive containing unknown information, was taken from the scene by a nearby resident. The same resident also found a large number of keys, apparently to homes in the developments, at the site. The resident turned over some of the keys to the police officers, but it’s unknown if it was the total amount found. He did not surrender the computer.
Witnesses also reported a garbage truck leaving the scene with two household dumpsters filled with still more files. The trucks were checked out to be from Maricopa Disposal who gave assurances that the contents would be protected until they could be returned or destroyed.
In contrast to the parking lot, nothing remained inside the Frontier Homes sales trailer. (Photo by Sam McCallie)
Resident Raymond Shiban and 8523mine.com’s Jessi Tellez examine the contents of a dumpster behind the Frontier Homes sales trailer. (Photo by Sam McCallie)
The dumpster contained house plans, Frontier Homes personnel information, and files of Frontier customers which included personal and financial information. (Photo by Dona LaJoie)
Two Maricopa Police officers arrived on the scene, secured the files from the cabinet, and began calling the customers to have them come down and retrieve their information. Residents came trickling through, over the next couple of hours, to pick up their files. It was the original intention of the police to have the Maricopa Fire Department burn the contents of the trash dumpster once the phone calls were completed. However, the Fire Department informed them that they could not guarantee the total destruction of everything in the dumpster using that method.’
Ultimately, several firefighters from a nearby station came out and emptied out the entire contents of the dumpster. Six more bags were found containing files with personal information. These were turned over the Maricopa Police Department for safekeeping until the files could be sorted through and the owners contacted.
A large amount of keys were found in the dumpster behind the sales office. It is assumed that the keys belong to new and possibly already occupied homes in the two Frontier Homes communities in Maricopa Meadows. (Photo by Dona LaJoie)
The Maricopa Fire Department begins emptying the dumpster, looking for abandoned Frontier Homes’ customer information files. Looking on are 8523mine.com owners Tony & Jessi Tellez. (Photo by Dona LaJoie)
The Maricopa Fire Department bagged up all the files found in the trash dumpster and turned them over to the Maricopa Police for safekeeping until the owners can be contacted. (Photo by Dona LaJoie)
“The Maricopa Police Department recognizes the concern that comes to those affected by this incident.”, stated Public Information Officer Sgt. Steve Judd, “The MPD takes very serious the problem and victimization caused by the crime of fraud involved with Identity Theft. However, at this time we have found no evidence that anyone’s information is being used for wrong doing. We do encourage all who feel they may be effected to take appropriate steps to safeguard their identity by contacting the credit reporting agencies and their financial institutions and alert them that their information may have been comprised.”
One resident reported that he spoke by phone to a Frontier Homes representative named “Doug”, in Casa Grande where Frontier also has new home commmunities, who claimed that the Maricopa offices were closed due to lack of sales, but that “all the files were moved to Casa Grande”. The resident also that Doug would “send someone out from Casa Grande” to investigate. Calls made to Frontier Homes offices in Casa Grande and California, made by several residents, and police, were not returned. Messages left by Maricopa360.com were also not returned.
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