The Amagasaki City in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, tasked a company with paying subsidies to households that were exempted from paying taxes and affected by the pandemic.
An employee of the company was put in charge of a USB drive that contained personal data of more than 460,000 residents of the city including their names, addresses, birthdates, bank account numbers and tax information.
The man kept the USB drive inside his bag before going out to a local restaurant and drinking for hours, before blacking out and waking up on the street with his bag missing.
He hurriedly made a police report thereafter.
The man then found the USB drive after searching for it in the vicinity with the police officers and finally managed to find it on 22 June.
According to the BBC, the USB drive was protected by a password and encrypted, and there were also no signs of anyone attempting to access the information in it.
City officials and the mayor then apologised to the residents and bowed during their apology.
Image source: Kyodo via Japan Times and Unsplash