The police department has informed us that there is a low probability that the tapes are of any use to the thief, as he also took loose change and sunglasses, and rifled the glove box, actions which are not typical of a sophisticated thief. We believe that the thief expected that there was a laptop computer inside the carrying case that contained the tapes. The tapes are in a format that most people will be unable to access or use without special knowledge and equipment. These stolen tapes included general membership database information including names, addresses, phone numbers, emergency contact information, place of employment (for adult member records), parent's workplace, phone numbers (for girl records), school names of our girl members, ages of our members, custodial care information (for girl records), ethnicity and the locations for troop meetings and camps. Troop meeting locations are listed by troop number, not girls' names.

The general membership database does not include any credit cards or social security numbers. A separate file—the camp and events database—did contain a limited number of social security numbers and credit card information for some members, parents and vendors. We are in the process of notifying the persons who were contained on that file. You have been specifically notified if we were able to identify you as one of these people. Although the probability that the information stolen will be used is low, we have decided to notify the persons whose information is involved so they can decide what precautions, if any, they wish to take. We have taken appropriate action to change our current procedures and to review our risk management plan to assure that this does not happen again. We have reported this incident to the police and are cooperating fully with them. We are advising the media not to publicize the theft in order to minimize the chance that the thieves will decide to try to benefit from the information on the tapes. We are contacting all affected parties by mail and e-mail. We apologize that this situation has arisen. The security of personal information is very important to us, and it always will be.