Suspicious man slashing trash bags in west Columbia
Residents of a west Columbia neighborhood say someone’s snooping through their trash –possibly digging for identities.
“It’s pretty disconcerting that we would have someone rummaging through our trash and looking for identity information,” said Edie Hickman a Bellwood resident.
The Bellwood neighborhood association put out a Facebook post last week that said multiple people in the area left the house in the morning to find slits cut into their trash bags. Now it’s warning the neighborhood of a trash bag slasher who might be trying to take residents’ personal information in order to steal their identities.
“At first I thought that maybe it was just an animal trying to get in and find some scraps, but it’s a knife or something where somebody has gone through the bag and they’re obviously trying to find something,” said Beau Baehman, another Bellwood resident.
The Bellwood Facebook post said a suspicious vehicle was seen driving through a nearby subdivision. Then a neighbor saw a man cutting into the side of trash bags. The man was driving a red or maroon Pontiac Grand Am or something similar. He was driving down the street with his lights off before sunrise.
“We try to be really good and make sure that we shred our stuff, but you know, this still is very concerning — very scary,” said Hickman.
Police have confirmed to ABC17 News that they are investigating the incident. Police said there have also been trash bag slashings on Clinton Drive near Broadway and West Boulevard.
