Nassau County Police are investigating how hundreds of shredded law enforcement documents, generated by the Nassau County Po;ice Department, became confetti for Thursday's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
A parade-goer was on 65th and Central Park West when he found the confetti. At first he thought it was just a once in a million thing but as he gathered more confetti, he realized it wasn't.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City has become as traditional as turkey, but what 18-year-old Ethan Finkelstein discovered about this year's confetti was unconventional to say the least.
"There were thousands of pieces of white confetti paper all around us. We just picked up a handful and started going through it and we noticed there were more social security numbers, more address and phone numbers," said Finkelstein.
The confetti contained social security numbers, employee identification numbers, bank account numbers as well as pieces of an incident report.
Based on the seal and the info, it appears this confetti came from the Nassau County Police Department.
"They said they were going to do a thorough investigation into this and I trust that they will because it's their police officers information it looks like – but I kind of find it strange that they haven't tried to get in contact with the people who were on that block," said Finkelstein.
So far, Finkelstein has not heard from police.
He is home for college and says this incident has taught him a lesson he'll never forget.
"It doesn't even take a hacker, just someone picking up stuff off the street to find your information."
Macy's uses commercially manufactured multi-colored confetti – not shredded homemade or printed paper of any kind in the parade. Macy's is not aware of where that ‘confetti' came from, as it is not something the parade distributes or uses.
Nassau County Police say they are continuing their investigation. The NYPD says it would assist in the investigation if needed.
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USDA photo
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