If you were near downtown South Bend Tuesday, you may have noticed a lot of paper.

That is because the United States Postal Service sponsored Shred It Day.

The Postal Service wants to raise awareness about the importance of shredding important documents in order to help prevent identity theft.

Folks dropped off papers they wanted shredded for free at the Michigan Street Post Office.

U.S. Postal Inspector Cecil Fink said, “We know just one of the way that criminals get lot of information is through the mail. It is a small percentage of the way to get information but we want to make sure all of the customers, whether if it’s through the mail, the internet through, or any other means, one of the ways to help yourself is by shredding your mail.”

Experts say, simply tearing your sensitive documents in half is not enough.

To be sure you are safe, you need to shred them.

If you could not make it Tuesday, there is another Shred It Day event in Fort Wayne on Thursday and Indianapolis on Friday.
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March 7, 2011

The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are observing National Consumer Protection Week by spreading awareness of identity theft and mail fraud scams, and also by hosting Shred It Day events.

Shred It Day in South Bend will be held on Tuesday March 8 at the South Bend Main Post Office located at 424 S. Michigan Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Customers are invited to bring up to three file-container sized boxes of documents for shredding, free of charge.

Consumer Protection Week is from March 6-12.

If you can not make it Tuesday, there is another one in Fort Wayne on Thursday and Indianapolis on Friday.