On Election Day, everything went smoothly in Charlottesville. Except, that is, for two laptops belonging to the City Registrar that were stolen from the Tonsler Park voting precinct sometime between 9pm on election night and 8am the next morning.
Charlottesville Police report that the building was broken into through a glass door.
“The stolen computers contained voter registration information to include names, addresses, date of birth, gender, voter identification numbers, and DMV customer numbers,” according to a press release from the city.
According to police, social security numbers were not included and the personal information is protected by “multiple layers of security and is at very low risk for accessibility.” An updated release reports that no voting information from Tuesday’s election was compromised due to the theft of these computers.
Although such theft is a growing problem, crimes stemming from information contained in stolen computers are rare in the city. “As of this release, there have been no reports of Identity Theft resulting from the theft of these computers,” police say.
Anyone who is concerned about the risk of identity theft is encouraged to follow these guidelines:
– contact the three major credit bureaus and request a free copy of your credit report;
– ask that they place an alert on your credit record to prevent unauthorized access to your information;
– frequently check your credit report and any activity on your accounts;
– Report any discrepancies to the reporting credit bureau.
