An investigation into how members’ personal and credit card information landed in the dumpster behind a closed Cardinal Fitness club in Indianapolis is ongoing, according to the Indiana Attorney General’s office.
Indianapolis TV stations reported the story last week after tips from viewers. The attorney general’s office seized documents from the dumpster, which has been removed.
“Our identity theft unit is in the process of inventorying all of the documents to determine whether the dump violates the security breach statute—which it appears that it does,” Erin Reece, public information officer for the Indiana Attorney General’s office, said in an email to Club Industry. “We will then contact the business, which must in turn contact all clients whose information was compromised.”
According to one TV station report, another official with the attorney general’s office said Cardinal Fitness could be fined up to $305,000.
Cardinal Fitness in Indianapolis has suffered some difficult times of late. Last November, six Cardinal Fitness clubs in the Indianapolis area closed, including the one in question. Two more clubs have closed since, one in December and one in January.
Cardinal Fitness, Chicago, licensed the Cardinal Fitness trademark to a Seattle-area-based company that operates all the clubs in Indiana and Wisconsin except for the Cardinal Fitness club in South Bend, IN.