What Does Your Trash
Reveal About You?
Garbage
is the food remains from preparing meals. Trash is everything else but the two are
often mixed. Trash is a gold mine to a Private Investigator or even a snoopy
neighbor. Imagine what could be learned about you and your family if someone had
secretly gone through your trash for the past month.
A
trash-sifter watches for items on the following list:
- Any
items you tore up (rather than using a shredder) … They tape the pieces back
together.
- Receipts,
invoices, ATM receipts
- Bank
statements with your name, address, account number, and balance
- Anything
suggesting drug use
- Telephone
bills revealing your number and numbers called
- Utility
and other bills, showing the name and address you use for those
- Paycheck
or money order stubs
- Empty
bottles from prescription drugs, with your doctor’s name
- Classified
ads from newspapers, to see if anything is circled
- Magazines,
travel brochures, or anything that would suggest interest in weapons or
strange practices
- Beer,
wine, and liquor containers
- Personal
and business letters with all address labels
- Scraps
of paper revealing a phone number or email address
- Itemized
grocery and pharmacy slips, for evidence of alcohol, illness, condoms,
birth control pills, or anything to suggest homosexual activity
- What
else can you think of, in your particular case?
- Do
you have a weekly arrangement for someone to come in and clean?
- Do
they have access to the trash?
- If
you work in an office? … Who handles the trash?
Janitors
are sometimes bribed to turn trash from a specific office over to private investigators
or government agents.
If
you do everything else right, no one will be able to sift through your trash
because nobody can find you. However, if someone does find you (perhaps by following
you home), make sure all papers have been shredded and there is nothing to find
in your trash.
Empty
prescription bottles with the label removed, whiskey bottles, and other items that
cannot be shredded are best tossed in a dumpster far away from home.