WASHINGTON -- Documents with Washington residents' personal information, including Social Security numbers and canceled checks, turned up Tuesday in a trash bin in an alley in northwest Washington, Pat Collins reported First On 4.

The trash bin on Paloma Way behind a storage building on U Street contained hundreds of real estate transactions. The papers contained bank balances, salary information and Social Security numbers.

"This is a tragedy to find all these personal documents in a Dumpster in an alley," said D.C. police Lt. Bill Farr, who was at the scene investigating.

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Real estate agent Ron Sneijder said the files came from a settlement company that went out of business a few months ago. He said he knows the owner of the company, and he was working with police to identify the files and protect the information.

"These should be with their underwriters. I don't know why they're in a Dumpster," said Sneijder.

"I am the victim of identify fraud myself, so I know how serious this is," he said.

One of the files contains the personal information of Luis Barr, a dentist in downtown D.C. He said he is scared and nervous and doesn't know what to do to protect himself.

Officials said they will try to alert the people whose information was found.