By Mac Sorensen
Identity thieves are known to mine through receptacles looking for receipts and personal documents to help commit their fraudulent crimes, which makes shredding anything containing your sensitive information so important.
Schneps Media and AARP New York want to help you protect yourselves from identity thieves by partnering together to sponsor seven free shredding events across the Five Boroughs and Long Island in the weeks ahead.
We’re bringing shredder trucks to seven locations in April and May so you can have your unwanted personal documents torn to bits. All you need to do is register at shred4free.com for any one of the seven scheduled events.
“We do these events starting in April because it’s the end of the tax-filing season; many taxpayers like to do a spring cleaning of their old financial statements and other records,” said Wilson Guzman, associate state director of community engagement for AARP New York. “Shredding old documents is one of the best defenses to protect yourself from Identity theft. Thieves will go through any length, including rifling through dumpsters and other trash receptacles. It is one of the main tricks of the scammer’s trade. Shredding community events will allow consumers to discard sensitive documents safely and securely. On the other hand, shredding documents yourself is time-consuming, and if you don’t do it properly, papers can still be pieced together.”
Each registered person for the shredding events are limited to three bags or small boxes of confidential documents for destruction. If you haven’t removed staples or paper clips, that’s okay; they can be shredded along with the documents with the powerful shredders on site.
Shredding equipment will be available for three hours at each location, or until full capacity is reached.
Among the items you can shred at these free events include tax information; investment records; bank statements; cancelled checks; pay stubs; ATM and credit card receipts; credit card statements; insurance information; utility bills; and more.
Here are the seven locations and dates of the Free Shred Events coming up:
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Bronx — Tuesday, April 26, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., AMC Bay Plaza Cinema 13 parking lot, 2210 Bartow Ave.
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Queens — Wednesday, May 4, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Plaxall parking lot, 5-25 46th Ave., corner of 46th Avenue and 5th Street, Long Island City.
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Brooklyn — Wednesday, May 11, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., in front of Erasmus High School, 914 Flatbush Ave., between Church and Snyder Avenues.
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Staten Island — Thursday, May 12, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Hilton Garden Inn Staten Island, rear parking lot, 1110 South Ave.
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Nassau County — Wednesday, May 18, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunrise Mall, parking lot adjacent to Chase Bank, off Sunrise Highway, Massapequa.
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Suffolk County — Thursday, May 19, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Walt Whitman Shops, 60 Walt Whitman Road, Huntington Station, near the Route 110 entrance behind Citibank.
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Manhattan – Friday, May 20, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Plaza, 163 West 125th St., Harlem.
Register to attend at shred4free.com.
Note: All participants are expected to comply with COVID-19 safety precautions consistent with CDC, federal, state and local orders/regulations, and at a minimum, to wear masks if unvaccinated and maintain social distance of 6 feet or more.
