CINCINNATI -- Hundreds of Tri-staters faced the possibility of their private information falling into the wrong hands.

But Target 5's Tom Sussi took action and was able to stop this potential banking disaster.

Here's Tom's report:

We're talking about the sort of confidential information that a crook would have a field day with. And you won't believe where we found it:

In a trash can, outside of a bank.

Less than 24 hours after Provident Bank officially became National City, a tip led me to a trash can in an alley behind National City downtown.

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What we saw was disturbing:

· Social Security numbers.

· Vehicle identification numbers.

· Even Visa numbers.

Discarded information belonging to former Provident customers, many of whom I called.

Brian Hayes was mortified to learn that information from a loan he took out at Provident more than five years ago was now public.

"To have a company that is supposed to be trustworthy - to take care of your information - and for something that sloppy -- seems a little bit more than disturbing," he said.

We then waited for Rumpke to pick up this trash bin along with others inside the garage. Security spotted our cameras. The garage was closed. Rumpke drove off. And a National City spokesperson confronted us.

Immediately he asked why Target 5 was in the alley. So we showed him.

"People's bank numbers. Social Security numbers. VIN numbers."

"Let me do some digging," the spokesperson said. "Like I said, I just found out about it about 10 minutes ago."

More than four hours later, though, National City refused to be interviewed or even fax us a statement.

This same spokesperson told me it's policy to shred all discarded personal information. He also said this trash bin should not have been in this alley but in a secured area.

That's little comfort to former Provident Bank customers whose private information was made public.

"I guess they don't care about the old customers from the old bank," Hayes said. "They're just throwing things out. That's kind of bizarre."

The bank said a former employee who was recently fired may have breached security and dragged that trash can containing those private records outside.

What we don't know, however, is why those documents were not destroyed prior to a scheduled trash pickup that was stopped after security spotted our cameras.

The bank plans to conduct an internal investigation.

If you have something you want Tom to take action on, e-mail him or call him at (513) 412-5049.