Pounds and pounds of trash are dumped each year in the state in places they shouldn't be. Here at home, you might see it alongside the road or even in some of the more rural areas. Occasionally, you might find this problem right outside your front door step.

Mattresses, tires and bags of trash are often some of the first images that come to mind when you think of illegal dumping. But what about hundreds of pieces of private information? One Bryan resident says he came home to that and much more, to remnants of days gone by.

“Maybe they come to the side of the road, they don't see anyone, and they throw some bags and keep on moving,” Brazos County Precinct 4 Constable Isaac Butler Jr. said. “Tires, bags of trash, clothes…a little bit of everything.”

These makeshift garbage graveyards are popping up all around Brazos County, and finding the culprits isn't exactly easy.

“This is a remote area, and it's hard to catch people illegal dumping. You see all the tires over here? They can come out and dump the tires and go out. Nobody will know they've been here,” Butler said.

That isn't always the biggest problem. Sometimes, it’s what is found.

“My wife pulled a little drawer out of this thing we found and it had a bunch of information on it,” said a Bryan resident who wishes to remain anonymous. “They had names, they had driver’s license numbers, pictures of the driver’s license, social security numbers, addresses, all that.”

The resident was out taking a walk when he first came across this unexpected find on his property.

“This right here is where I found the first one,” he said while pointing at his bar ditch on the edge of his property. It’s been a hot spot for dumping for more than 30 years, but never had he found anything quite like the three things he did this time.

“My wife and I pulled them out and carried them to the house,” the Bryan man said. “They had been underwater.”

What the couple had found was three small file boxes full of personal records. Although more than a decade old and visibly damaged from the weather, the information on many of the records was still fully intact.

“It had a bank name on it,” the man said. “This might be some information that shouldn't have gotten out.”

The name on the records: First Federal Savings Bank.

We decided to track the records back to the original owners to find out how such private information ended up near this public street in Bryan.

According to public documents, First Federal Savings Bank had locations in Bryan, but apparently closed its doors under that name around 2002, and has been acquired by several banks since then, Prosperity Bank most recently.

We contacted officials with Prosperity who declined an on-camera interview, but did take a look at the records. They tell News 3 they never assumed ownership of these banking records, and that all of their records are destroyed by a professional company on-site.

How they ended up on a residential street in Bryan for now remains a dangerous mystery for those whose information was compromised.

“People get a hold of your records and use them inappropriately,” Frederick Brossart said after finding out his information was among the records found.

Brossart says he's always been conscientious about destroying all documents with private information, so when he found out a bank record with both his and his now deceased mother's personal information had turned up near a Bryan street, he was surprised to say the least.

“I guess I take it for granted they were disposed of properly,” Brossart said.

In this day and age of identity theft where all it takes is social security number to turn someone's life upside down, seeing that magic number displayed so clearly and where others could find it is leaving some with a bad taste in their mouth.

“I'm not happy about it obviously. I'm extremely disappointed in the bank,” Gerald Frye said. “I guess the bank had these. I'm not sure at this point who has the responsibility.”

Frye's information was also among the records recovered from the bar ditch, but in his case, it wasn't just his information compromised, but also his family’s.

“This is my son's. There were probably two other accounts there,” Frye said. “One of the accounts, not these two, have been closed as recently as two-and-a-half years ago. It's not like these are that ancient.”

With one bank now closed and several bank mergers since then, who's accountable?

We got on the phone with the Attorney General's office to see what could be done to help these families get some answers. But despite many new laws and stiff penalties aimed at holding businesses responsible for not properly destroying-private information, we were told since the records were found in a bar ditch with no proof of being intentionally dumped, it would be hard for them to take on the case. News 3 was advised by officials with the Attorney General’s office to have the records professionally destroyed.

“They are getting destroyed by shredding,” said Vance Goss with Brazos Record Storage. “That is the most efficient way to destroy things and make sure they are destroyed.”

For Frye and Brossart, there's still the fear of the unknown.

“I would hope this would make whoever is responsible aware they need to dispose of things in a suitable fashion so there isn't the threat of ID Theft,” Brossart said.

“I think we're discouraged by this and wondering what other types of records around town that we know are out there could turn up some day,” Frye added.

Identity theft is a very real problem. Last year alone, more than 11 million people were affected. Experts say when you can, make sure you shred all personal information.

For this story, we used Brazos Record Storage to make sure the records were destroyed the right way once and for all. As part of their program, you receive a certificate of destruction so that you have proof that the files were disposed of properly by the company.

One of the men whose records were found tells News 3 he's already done a credit check to make sure there no was abnormal activity, and so far so good.

For more information on identity theft and prevention, go to http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/