State Fair Sues Document-Disposal Company

The State Fair of Texas has filed suit against its document-disposal company - Iron Mountain, Incorporated. This is the company that was contracted to destroy all of the unused 50 cent food and ride coupons each year after the Fair ends. It seems that instead of being destroyed, many of the coupons were sold on the black market by Iron Mountain employees.

If a person is left with unused coupons after the Fair closes, the State Fair of Texas allows the customer to use those coupons at the next years Fair. However, at last year's Fair, officials noticed they were getting a huge amount of coupons from 2004 - far more than normal. They notified Dallas police and hired private investigators. That is when they learned that many of the coupons were being sold rather than destroyed. The Fair believes they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

After investigating, Dallas police said they believed that no laws were broken, and told the State Fair officials that it was a civil matter. The Fair is sueing Iron Mountain for $1.5 million for losses, attorney fees and punitive damages.

The Fair has hired a new document-disposal company. This company brings mobile shredders to the State Fair site, and destroys the coupons as Fair officials oversee the operation. It is hoped that this procedure will stop the coupon scam.

I applaud the new system the State Fair has instituted, but I still don't understand the police decision that no crime was involved. This was a scam to steal from the State Fair. Isn't stealing still a crime in Texas?