Spectators at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City experienced more than the usual collection of floats and inflatable characters. They also were showered with an unusual assortment of confetti.

Among the sprinkling of paper bits were long narrow strips containing information from local police reports. The strips were large enough for parade attendees to spot social security numbers, dates of birth and other details of detectives, as well as the emblem for the Nassau County police department.

There were even confidential details of Mitt Romney’s motorcade from the presidential debate at Hofstra University.

Somehow, hundreds of shredded law enforcement records were dumped over the parade. Police officials had no explanation for why or how this happened, but a report by WPIX-TV says the confetti was brought to the parade by a police department employee to be thrown by family and friends.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Confetti at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Contained Police Secrets (by Sabrina Ford, Kaylee Osowski and Dan MacLeod, New York Post)

Secret Police Documents Become Thanksgiving Parade Confetti (by Matthew Chayes, Newsday)

Nassau County Police Employee Brought Classified Confetti to Thanksgiving Parade (by James Ford, WPIX)