You try to guard your financial information to thwart identity thieves. But what happens when you turn critical financial data over to a financial institution?

NEWS4 investigator Brian Maass found that they may not always be as careful as you'd like.

In NEWS4's report below, NEWS4 electronically obscured personal information to protect the individuals in question.

Michele Lyons might be surprised to find out that NEWS4 found an important document with her information on it without much effort, Maass reported. It was a notice from her mortgage company about her home loan, containing her credit status and other details about her loan. -- not the kind of stuff you want falling into the wrong hands.

NEWS4 didnt have to go looking for it. It blew into our hands.

Anthony Ciora might also be a bit surprised. Matthew and Amber Nichols might be miffed. And imagine what Jodee Leonino might think?

NEWS4 found crucial financial information on all of them, and dozens of others, blowing around an Englewood parking lot earlier this month.

"It just doesn't seem like a very good practice to throw away people's financial information and Social Security numbers and how much they make. It doesn't seem like a good idea to dump it in a dumpster does it?" Maass asked a Pulte Mortgage employee who was cleaning up the papers.

"No comment," the employee said.

The dumpster was just behind the offices of Pulte Mortgage in Englewood. Pulte Mortgage is a national mortgage lender with offices in 24 states.

Someone in the office dumped pages of sensitive financial information in the trash without shredding it. It then proceeded to blow all over the place.

NEWS4 found page after page of loan applications with peoples names, Social Security numbers, their credit information, underwriting summaries and insurance information all around the dumpster, in puddles and in the parking lot.

"(Do you have) any idea why they were dumping financial papers like this in the trash?" Maass asked.

"I have no comment," the employee said.

After NEWS4 arrived and started taking pictures, the Pulte worker began cleaning up.

Pulte Mortgage says normally documents are shredded, but that in this case, someone screwed up.

"What NEWS4 found was that a box of documents -- a single box meant for the shredder -- was thrown out in the regular trash," Pulte Mortgage representative Debra Still said.

Pulte says it has learned from this and is strengthening policies to safeguard confidential information.

The company may now get documents shredded every day rather than three times a week.

"It is surprising and disappointing that there are still companies who have identifying information from consumers and are not doing a better job of protecting it," Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter said.

This kind of information is the kind identity thieves can use to bleed you dry, according to Ritter.

"They could get a credit card in your name. They could possibly open a checking account in your name. They could buy things -- all sorts of things to transact business without you ever knowing about it," Ritter said.

Pulte says what happened here was an isolated event, and they won't leave customers' financial data blowing in the wind.

To protect yourself, Ritter suggests when you turn over personal information to a company like your Social Security number, date of birth and so on, ask how they plan to dispose of that information after your business is done. Also, make sure they plan to shred the documents, Ritter said.

Pulte Mortgage emphasized this was a painful but valuable learning experience for them.

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