By The Los Angeles Times

Published: Monday, November 26, 2012, 8:01 p.m.
Updated: Monday, November 26, 2012

When Thanksgiving Day parade-goers in Manhattan looked into the confetti-filled sky last week, they may have seen more than they bargained for.

Nassau County police announced that they are investigating how some of their confidential records, including Social Security numbers and even details about a motorcade for Mitt Romney, then the GOP presidential candidate, ended up as joyous scraps raining from buildings on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

“I'm just completely in shock. How could someone have this kind of information, and how could it be distributed at the Thanksgiving Day Parade?” Inspector Kenneth Lack, from the Nassau County Police Department, told reporters.

The parade features inflated balloons of cartoon characters, marching bands and floats traveling down Manhattan's West Side to Herald Square, the traditional home of the department store, Macy's. Part of the festivities include a liberal outpouring from windows and rooftops. Macy's says it uses “commercially manufactured, multicolored confetti, not shredded paper.”

But last week, revelers noticed something different.

Ethan Finkelstein, 18, was watching the parade when he said he and a friend noticed a strip of confetti on her coat. He told Pix11 news: “It landed on her shoulder, and it says ‘SSN' and it's written like a Social Security number, and we're like, ‘That's really bizarre.' ”

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