GARY | Gary has secured a cache of city records containing private citizens' information in a building The Times found last week to be open to potential thieves, city officials said.

"Those records are now safe," Mayor Rudy Clay said Monday morning. "I've got the deputy mayor working on the problem, and she is on top of it."

Deputy Mayor Geraldine Tousant said city workers on Monday entered 1710 Broadway, a city building that formerly housed the Gary Emergency Referral, youth services, and weights and measures offices. It has not been used by the city in two or three years, but private information on some of the city's poor -- including Social Security numbers and addresses -- were left behind in records.

That information sat open to view because the back door of the building had been removed and part of the inside of the building had been ransacked, a Times investigation revealed last week.

Tousant said Monday she is confident no sensitive records were stolen.

"They are taking the papers to the General Services Department," Tousant said. "Some will be kept, and some will be destroyed."

Federal law requires local government agencies and private businesses to protect records from identity thieves who can use another person's name, date of birth or Social Security number to open bank accounts, write bad checks or make credit card purchases with the victim's stolen identity.

A 2003 Federal Trade Commission survey indicates tens of millions of Americans have been victimized by identity theft and tens of billions of dollars have been lost because of the crime.

Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said Monday she could neither confirm nor deny whether her agency will investigate alleged neglect of sensitive city records in the Gary matter.

Tousant said all of the city officials who were responsible for the records no longer work for the city.