Coca-Cola Blamed for Massive Identity Theft

PHILADELPHIA (CN) - Rogue Coca-Cola Co. employees went on spending sprees with the personal information of more than 70,000 co-workers, a federal class action alleges.

Shane Enslin filed the complaint Wednesday, seeking damages under the Drivers Piracy Protection Act for negligence, fraud, conspiracy and other claims.

As an 11-year employee of Keystone Coca-Cola Bottling, Enslin says he entrusted the soda giant with his personal identifying and financial information, abbreviated in the complaint as PII.

Coke allegedly sent Enslin a letter this past February, alerting him to the fact that his PII was "stored on or accessed from at least one of the 55 laptops stolen sometime between January of 2007 and December of 2013." The breach on the company's largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises, compromised the PII of at least 74,000 current and former Coke employees, according to the complaint.

Enslin blames Coca-Cola for failing to properly encrypt such PII, which the thieves used "to wreak havoc on the plaintiff's life."

He says the thieves used his bank account to pay for more than $958 worth of Bloomingdale's merchandise, delivered to Staten Island.

They also allegedly had more than $825 of Fingerhut merchandise shipped to that Staten Island address, which the thieves tried to make the primary address for all of Enslin's accounts, according to the complaint.

Enslin says the thieves "took control of two (2) of Mr. Enslin's Capital One Credit Card accounts and his Best Buy Credit Account," and engaged in a similar scheme with his Macy's card.

This summer the thieves shopped in Ireland and got a job with the delivery giant UPS in his name

Meanwhile Coca-Cola has merely offered Enslin free credit monitoring through a third-party.

Enslin no longer worked for the company by the time of the breach. He claims his information was still accessible on the machines and were easily accessed on the unencrypted computers.

Coca-Cola recovered approximately 55 computers by Dec. 10, 2013, according to the complaint. In addition to various Coke subsidiaries, the complaint names one of the charged thieves, Thomas Rogers III, as a defendant.

"On or about June 14, 2014, Mr. Rogers was arrested and charged by the Cobb County Police," the complaint states. "He stands charged with felony and misdemeanor theft by taking."

Enslin is represented by Donald Haviland Jr. of Haviland Hughes in Ambler.

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