The first letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs didn’t seem unusual to David Strider, but the box of hundreds of documents he received two hours later did. Now the Tacoma man is left to wonder why documents with sensitive information of hundreds of veterans was sent to him.
Strider is a veteran himself; he’s a former Marine. The first letter just explained some changes to his benefits, which he said the VA sends periodically when there are major changes that will affect people.
Two hours later, he got a package delivered by UPS. On top, he found a letter folded and addressed to him; underneath, he found copies of hundreds of documents containing sensitive information.
"I took all the things out and started looking at it – these are not my records. Then I realized these are copies of the same record I received two hours earlier,” Strider said.
Except the other copies were the documents with usernames, addresses and social security numbers of veterans all over the country.
He was hesitant to hand over the information to the VA, so he contacted KING 5. He said he wanted to know why it was sent to him. He later gave them to a special agent with the VA’s Office of the Inspector General.
The only official response came from UPS:
“We’ve completed our portion of the investigation but do not disclose customer information,” according to a senior manager.
KING 5 also asked for another comment about who was at fault but have not heard back.
The VA of Puget Sound said they are still working on an official response.