( CNN ) -- A man walks into a thrift store . A New Zealand man finds confidential U.S. military files on a used MP3 player he bought at a thrift store for $ 9 . It sounds like the opening line to a bad joke . And this case was a bad joke -- for the Pentagon . Chris Ogle of New Zealand was in Oklahoma about a year ago when he bought a used MP3 player from a thrift store for $ 9 . A few weeks ago , he plugged it into his computer to download a song , and he instead discovered confidential U.S. military files . `` The more I look at it , the more I see , and the less I think I should be , '' Ogle said with a nervous laugh in an interview with TVNZ . The files included the home addresses , Social Security numbers and cell phone numbers of U.S. soldiers . The player also included what appeared to be mission briefings and lists of equipment deployed to hot spots in Afghanistan and Iraq . Most of the information appears to date to 2005 . The New Zealand journalist who first reported the story was able to contact at least one of the soldiers by dialing a phone number found in the files . He hung up once she explained why she was calling . Watch how man discovered secret military files » . Pentagon officials told CNN that they are aware of the MP3 player , but ca n't talk about it until investigators confirm that the information came from the U.S. Department of Defense . `` The government is n't doing a good job of protecting the information that it collects , '' said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington . Despite government efforts to protect sensitive information , this is a growing problem , privacy experts say . Two years ago , the Department of Veterans Affairs lost track of a laptop with the personal information of millions of soldiers . And computer hard drives with classified military information have been found for sale at street markets in Afghanistan . `` When you can identify American personnel , when you have their names , their home address , their cell phone numbers , you put people in a dangerous position , '' Rotenberg said . In this case , the personal information for several hundred soldiers landed in friendly hands . Ogle told CNN the MP3 player is being kept in a safe place and he will happily turn it over to U.S. military officials if they ask for it .
New Zealander finds confidential U.S. military files on a used MP3 player . Man bought player for $ 9 a year ago at an Oklahoma thrift store . Owner says he 'll happily hand over the player to the U.S. military if he is asked .