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Operation Shredding: Vehicles lined up before dawn to protect themselves from identity thieves

About 40 tons of paper and electronics destroyed
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Hundreds of Tampa Bay residents took advantage of the ABC Action News 10th annual Operation Shredding event, unloading about 40 tons of personal documents and data filled electronics.

Vehicles lined up before dawn to take advantage of the free service and protect themselves from identity thieves.

In some cases, people had held on to personal papers for decades because they had no way to dispose of it safely.

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Others shared personal stories related to the documents and data they unloaded. One woman, Amy told us she was there to help her family.

“Recently my father moved and my younger passed away and I have a lot of his stuff,” she said.

Many dumped old tablets, computer towers and cell phones, all of which are destroyed by electronics recycler Quicksilver.

The entire ABC Action News team volunteered to empty car trunks of thousands of pounds of paper which was shredded on site by Proshred. All of the 40 or so tons of paper and electronics collected on this day will recycled.

In the last 10 years Tampa Bay area residents dumped upwards of one million pounds of paper and electronics thru Operation Shredding.