Updated: April 28, 2009 09:21 AM

WICHITA, Kan.)

Bank accounts, social security numbers and job history - information needed to rent an apartment. It is information you'd expect to be kept confidential. But we caught one Wichita apartment complex putting its residents at risk.

We got a phone call from a resident at Madison Park Apartments in Wichita. She was concerned because she noticed boxes and boxes of personal information and paperwork inside one of the apartment's dumpsters. She says she called the management to tell them about the problem but when they didn't do anything about it - she called us.

When we got there, we noticed some of the paperwork had fallen outside of the dumpster.  It consisted of rental applications which included residents' credit history and information. An apartment staff member came over and we explained what we had found.  We showed him a paper that had a Key Management letterhead at the top. Key Management is a company which manages apartment complexes. At first, the staff member denied that paperwork was theirs. 

"We're not Key Management," said the staff member. "That's not our company."

He even alludes to the idea someone else may be using the dumpster.  

But the next paperwork we dig out has Madison Park Apartments letterhead.  It's no doubt from the apartment. We ask the staff member - who refuses to give us his name or job title - about it.

"I don't know how it got thrown away," said the staff member. "It's our policy to shred everything."

In the time we are standing by the dumpster, a number of apartment residents come by and drop off trash. Many of them comment about what they see inside.

"That's not good," said Josh Cafferty.  "None of that is good."

When we ask who owns the property, the staff member refuses to tell us. We later track down owner Lew McGinnis from Oklahoma City. We placed two calls to McGinnis to ask him about the situation. Neither of our calls was returned.

As for Key Management, we called and asked them about the situation. It tells us they used to manage Madison Park Apartments a few years ago but no longer do. The company says what we found "concerns us because it reflects on us that we had something to do with it." Key Management says once it stops managing a complex, it obviously has no control over what happens to the paperwork. 

Back at Madison Park Apartments, we ask the staff member whether the confidential information will be taken care of. He says it will.  After we leave the property, we see workers go through the dumpster and haul away the boxes. 

So, what would've happened if someone would've taken some of the private information from the dumpster and used it to steal the person's identity? Could the apartment complex be held liable?  We asked the Financial Crimes Division with the Wichita Police Department. They tell us if there's no provable criminal intent, the Kansas ID theft statute does not apply.