You might not think of a small town of 12,000 people in rural southwest Minnesota when contemplating identity theft, but the Worthington police department is concerned about the problem. They say they’ve identified 36 cases where two people share the exact same name and birth date with addresses listed in Worthington.

Worthington is a town with a growing Hispanic population. City officials say they’re drawn to jobs provided by the nearby Swift Pork Plant. Police say illegal aliens are using someone else’s birth certificate to fraudulently obtain state-issued ID cards. More than one person is using the same stolen identity, it would seem. In Worthington alone, there are two Victor Abelenda’s with the same date of birth. Who knows how many more there may be around the state, or across the nation?

The stolen identity case of Olga Franco became a high-profile example when she crashed into a school bus, killing four students in southwest Minnesota. She initially told police that her name was Alianiss Morales, an alias she adopted by using a stolen birth certificate.

Of the 36 cases of suspicious IDs, Worthington police found that for all but one of the duplicated identities, two different individuals were pictured on the license or state ID card.  Worthington police say they’d brought the situation to the attention of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (MDPS), but the MDPS denies being informed of the ID problems. Chris Krueger of the DPS said they are now looking into the situation.

The obvious but unanswered question is: if a small town like Worthington has 36 cases of duplicate identities, how many more cases of stolen identity are there statewide? The MDPS appears to have a very big problem with ID integrity that they were either unaware of, or have simply chosen to ignore.