FLORENCE, Al. (WYMT/WJHL/WHNT) - Hundreds of medical records from Southwest Virginia ended up in the trash in Alabama.

WHNT TV in Alabama reports the confidential files were from Dr. Kenneth Kiser's office in Norton, Virginia. They were found more than 300 miles away in dumpsters.

Dr. Kiser hasn't worked in his Norton office or in Southwest Virginia in years. So how did his patients' files end up in Alabama?

Dennis Ashley would like to know. Ashley says Dr. Kiser was his family physician up until he moved away many years ago. The former patient says some of the records found in the dumpster could very well belong to him or members of his family and that frightens him.

"You never know when the wrong person will see them and they can use it to really dig into your personal business easily," Ashley said. "I'm sure everybody's concerned about it. It's a shock that they would just toss something like that that's very important to you."

Dr. Kiser, up until recently, operated a clinic in Alabama. As for the documents, a family member told WHNT the doctor hired a company to shred the records and then get rid of them in a landfill.

Alabama police say since they couldn't track down the doctor, they shredded the five or six medical records provided to them. The rest remained in the dumpsters. Detectives say people should not call them about this matter, because they are not investigating it.

Officers say if people are concerned their records may have been breached, they should file a fraud report with equifax.com to help monitor any accounts that might be opened in their names.

We were unable to reach Dr. Kiser for comment.