Macy’s parade confetti contained sensitive info

NEW YORK (WHDH) -- Confetti thrown at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade contained sensitive information.

A Tufts University freshman was attending Thursday’s parade when he and his friends noticed disturbing information on some of the confetti.

The paper came from police reports.

Ethan Finkelstein said one piece stuck onto a friend's coat.

"It landed on her shoulder. She looked at it, she picked it off her jacket, and it says ‘SSN’, and then there's a number, and it's written like a social security number, and we're like, 'that's really bizarre,'" said Finkelstein.

Finkelstein and his friends then picked up more pieces of the shredded paper.

"There are phone numbers on it, addresses, more social security numbers, license plates' numbers, and then we find these incident reports from police,” said Finkelstein.

Some of the confetti strips mentioned arrest records.

“This was really shocking because it says, 'about 4:30 a.m., a homemade pipe bomb was thrown outside a home in the Kings Grant area,'" said Finkelstein.

A closer look showed the documents were from the Nassau County Police Department.

The paper contained information about Mitt Romney's motorcade and even identified undercover detectives.

"I'm just completely in shock. How can people have this type of sensitive information? And why is it being shredded and being distributed at the Thanksgiving Day parade?"

Officials with the Nassau County Police Department said they're concerned about the incident and are launching an investigation.

They’re also reviewing how they dispose of sensitive documents.