The identities and personal information of more than 1,000 Veterans Affairs patients were discovered during a traffic stop at the VA campus in Long Beach and a VA clerk was arrested on suspicion of identity theft, authorities said today.

VA law enforcement officers spotted a personal vehicle Thursday with what appeared to be commercial license plates attached and ran a check of the plates, then stopped the driver when they determined the attached plates did not belong to the vehicle, according to Richard Beam, spokesman for the VA Long Beach Health Care System.

While talking with the driver, an officer noticed an unlabeled pill container with various pills inside and conducted a search of the vehicle, Beam said.

A second search of the vehicle yielded private information for 1,028 VA patients, including names, dates of birth and full Social Security numbers, as well as more than $1000 worth of federal property, he said.

There is no indication any veterans identification information was being used fraudulently, but the VA will notify each of the potentially impacted veterans and provide a year’s worth of credit monitoring services, said Beam.