Last week, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper made a statement encouraging residents to protect themselves by shredding personal documents. This week, Southern Bank in Bath has issued an invitation to do it.

May 11, from 10 a.m. until noon, anyone with up to 60 pounds of documents can have them shredded for free at Southern Bank’s Carteret Street location in Bath.

“It’s a big truck that comes and they’ve said it will (shred) through staples and everything,” said Amy Cordon, teller/customer service representative at Southern Bank.

Cordon and two other bank employees will be present for the shredding process that Southern Bank helps to sponsor statewide with a number of other groups, including the Attorney General’s office, Better Business Bureau, shredding companies and local civic groups.

Shredding sensitive documents keeps them from ending up in the wrong hands, said Cordon.

“It protects their information against identity theft — against people getting old documents if there’s a break-in,” Cordon explained.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, thieves will go much further than break-ins to collect another’s personal information for their own gain.

“Identity thieves will still go low-tech and dig through dumpsters in search of your personal information,” Cooper said in a press release. “Protect your good name by shredding old documents at one of these free events.”

Documents the Attorney General’s office recommends for shredding include pre-approved credit card offers, old bills, out-of-date account statements and other documents that have personal information.

Cordon said that this is the first time a Bath branch of Southern Bank has held an event of this type, and thinks there will be a good turnout.

“We’re hoping there is,” Cordon said. “We’ve had right many people in the past week inquire about it.”