Student Loan Data Is Safe — Right Near The Safe

What officials feared was one the biggest cases of U.S. student identity theft ever appeared to reach a happy ending last week — as Minneapolis police discovered the data for 3.3 million people in their own evidence room.

Two 200-pound safes containing the information were stolen sometime during the March 20-21 weekend from the Oakdale, Minn., headquarters of the Education Credit Management Corp., a nonprofit that services and insures student loans, according to a March 27 report by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The report soon made national news, as officials estimated that the 650 CDs and computer discs within the safes contained the Social Security numbers and other personal information for 3.3 student loan borrowers — or about five percent of all students with federal loans in the U.S.

The safes, pried open, were found March 22 in a trash bin in a Minneapolis alley. The CDs and floppy discs, still in their original packaging, were found in the trash nearby. Police took the safes, CDs and discs to the department's evidence room for later inspection, Andy Skoogman, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, told the Star Tribune.

Police gave the recovered property "normal" priority, and it was "put in line to be analyzed ... and treated like the hundreds of other pieces of property that they recover," Skoogman said.

"It's not uncommon for us to recover safes. We recover so much property," Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia told the Star Tribune. Police at first tried to read the discs but failed to crack them, Garcia said. "The main thing is it [the data] sat in our property room, secure," he said.

Police finally discovered what they had on the CDs and discs on April 12. The personal information appeared not to have been compromised, officials said.

Investigators have identified a suspect in the theft, Skoogman said. He has not been charged but is in custody on a parole violation, he said. Investigators say there may be additional suspects.

Skoogman said he doubts that the motive for stealing the safes was identity theft.