If you, like me, are faithful to recycling, and everything you can do to save the planet, just make sure to save yourself!

I went out for an early morning walk the other day, to find some men, I will say "teens" poking through some one's blue box.  Our recycling and garbage collection happen quite early here, approximately 7am, therefore many people put out all their recycling etc, the night before.

Just make sure your credit card information, or receipts, or anything with personal accounts and numbers on it, are shredded!

This is how identity theft can happen.  I found out through the grapevine, that they usually go looking for those "pre-approved credit card applications" that you may have pitched as junk mail, then apply for credit under your name.

You don't want to spend your life totally paranoid, but there are some basic things you MUST do to protect yourself, and this is one of them.  Invest in a good shredder, or rip into small pieces and mix it up in the pile.  Don't just throw out personal information in its whole form. 

They took off pretty quick when I got near, and I am used to seeing garbage poked at, afterall sometimes you can find a great treasure in someone else's trash, such as tables, chairs, household items, but really, what could be so interesting in some one's blue box, other than papers, and personal identity information.  I can't imagine they were looking for empty cans or bottles or yesterdays newspaper, so just be careful what you put out at roadside.

I myself have a great shredder, but if I am having a good clean out of my filing cabinet, I usually burn them all in a can outside.. then I know for sure..     So, just watch out for these blue box attackers!