University of Missouri screws up cell phone sale

updated 7:03 p.m. ET Sept. 29, 2009

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri athletics department is changing its procedures after selling a box of old cell phones that included old text messages and contact numbers.

Mike Bellman paid $190 for 25 phones. They included text messages to and from basketball coach Mike Anderson, football coach Gary Pinkel and Athletics Director Mike Alden. E-mails and contact numbers were also on the phones.

The university offered to buy them back, but Bellman said he hoped to sell them to a sports collector. Bellman did not immediately return calls and e-mails from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Athletics department spokesman Chad Moller says all information will now be wiped out of phones before they are discarded.

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