The documents also included details such as soldiers’ ranks, emails, shift patterns, and weapon issue details, which experts say could represent a security threat for the named individuals.
Piles of papers containing confidential military information were found scattered in the streets of Newcastle, a city in northern England, earlier this month.
Football fan Mike Gibbard was parking his car on 16 March as he headed to a match when scraps of paper littering the street caught his eye.
Gibbard got out of his car and was astonished to discover that the pieces of paper were, in fact, a trail of military documents.
“I was very surprised, I thought to myself, this shouldn’t be here”, Gibbard told Euronews.
To his shock, the documents appeared to contain information about the British Army regiments and barracks at Catterick Garrison — which are located approximately 80 kilometres south of Newcastle in northern Yorkshire.
They listed details about the facilities’ perimeter, patrol routines, weapons checks, mobile phone numbers, and requests for leave.
“There were also the names of soldiers, but also those of high ranking serving soldiers,” Gibbard added.
He was quick to phone the police, worried about who else could have come across the papers before him.
On the other end of the line, the police were in total disbelief at what they were hearing. “I spent five minutes clarifying that what I was seeing was real,” Gibbard told Euronews.
According to experts, the classified information discovered could represent a serious security threat to the named individuals.
Gibbard told Euronews that the Ministry of Defence had not contacted him. “They haven’t asked me anything about what I saw. It feels as though they just want to brush it under the carpet.”
The Ministry of Defence told Euronews they were aware that documentation “allegedly relating to the department was recently handed to the police.”
The ministry added that it was looking into the matter urgently and that an ongoing investigation led by Northumbria Police was under way.
