<prompt> Human: I live near the downtown area of a smallmedium college town in the Midwest. Im in the process of moving out, so Ive been throwing a lot of unwanted stuff in the trash. I left for the weekend, and came back to both my trash can and recycle can opened and the content scattered. Im hoping it was just some homeless person looking for stuff to use or sell, although there were some womens shoes they didnt take. On the other hand, my trash can was almost full before, and is now only half full, so Im assuming they didnt just take some pieces of paper, but some bigger items too. Im worried about potential identity theft, because I have the bad habit of not shredding personal documents which will change now. Has anyone experienced this? What can I do at this point? Some more details: I dont have any credit cards, but have two chase debit cards. Something else that might be in the trash would be my old duke energy bills. The thing is: my mailbox is right next to the trash can, with a new duke energy bill which they didnt take. So Im hoping thats not what they were after.  <response>: This happens often on trash day and recycling day. Its just people looking for metal or stuff they can sell. An identity thief would go through your mail first, not your trash. The only thing you can do is freeze your credit, and check it often to look for inconsistencies. 