D.C. Tax Office Servers Found in Alley
posted 12:17 pm Sat February 09, 2008 - WASHINGTON
Building engineer Melvin Barnes found the three-foot tall, 50-pound servers sitting next to the dumpster on Wednesday morning.
"First of all, I'm upset because I gotta move 'em," said Barnes, recalling his first reaction. "I began to look at the stickers that were on the servers and I seen, 'D.C. Government, Property of the Tax and Revenue' and I thought, 'Uh-oh.'"
The office is currently under investigation in a multi-million dollar embezzlement case in which 10 people have been arrested, including two tax office employees.
ABC 7/NewsChannel 8's Alisa Parenti reports that the servers were left in the alley after a woman brought them to the neighboring UPS store, but decided against shipping them because it would have cost $275.
"They looked like really old servers and she said that they bought them at auction from the D.C. government," said UPS Store employee Naman Bhatia.
The 10-year-old machines are listed as being sold in an online auction of excess D.C. government equipment.
The servers appeared to have been out of service for at least five years, but some worry they could still contain personal information about D.C.taxpayers, or even data involving the fraud.
City technology officials say they inspected the servers at FBI headquarters Friday morning and don't think they stored any sensitive taxpayer data. They say the servers were used for answering agency phones with computerized responses.
|
|
Latest Comment on D.C. Tax Office Servers Found in Alley
SpareMe
1:12 pm on 02/11/08
Ok you were going to ship them....but decided against it...Something just isn't right here. They need to check this chick out.
Not a member yet? Click Here to sign up.
Please leave your comments below:
Messages that harass, abuse or threaten other members; have obscene or otherwise objectionable content; have spam, commercial or
advertising content or inappropriate links may be removed and may result in the loss of your posting privileges.
Please do not post any private information unless you want it to be available publicly.
Never assume that you are completely anonymous and cannot be identified by your posts.
© 2008 WJLA-TV
© 2008 The Associated Press
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The 'RUNNING MAN' icon is a registered trademark of America Online, Inc.
ABC 7 News to leave comments on news stories.