Industrial shredders have the power to destroy a lot of sensitive info – beyond the typical white sheet of paper. Envelopes, X-Ray, Films, Tapes, and CD’s are destroyed within minutes. And paperclips and staples do not even need to be removed from your box prior to shredding.
BUT you would not believe the odd things that people have brought in to shred on purpose or by accident over the past 10 years here in Windsor-Essex!
Here are a few staff favourites:
- A full, still in-the-box, set of cutlery.
- A hammer.
- Pictures of ex-husbands. (Oddly, it’s never men shredding pictures of ex-wives). They stay and watch. One woman said that watching the shredder obliterate the face of her ex made her feel less angry at him for sleeping with her sister. Whatever works!
- License plates
- Piles of stones
- TEETH
- A bag in a box that felt very soft. Convinced it was a human hand, our main operator at the time said he would not go near the shredding until the bag was removed. (Full disclosure: This was soon after he picked up a shred cart where a human body was being prepared for burial). We opened the bag and found it contained greasy rags and some metal pins and broken drill bits
- A couple that was getting divorced but reconciled, brought in their divorce papers to watch go through the shredder.
- A surprising number of pens and keys.
- Items by mistake! A man brought in a box with a wedding album from the 70’s. When asked, “Are you sure you want to shred this?” His face went pure white and he said, “I brought the wrong box!”
People must be so excited to shred that they forget to sort through their boxes! Either way, it makes for good stories.
For information about what you SHOULD shred refer to our earlier blog post.
