CBC employee Elliott Garnier found the bag outside his apartment building. (CBC)A bag containing confidential documents and a USB digital device belonging to an Alberta cabinet minister was stolen from a vehicle Tuesday night and dumped outside an Edmonton apartment building, where it was found by a tenant.

The bag belonging to Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton was found propped up at the door of Elliott Garnier's apartment building in the central neighbourhood of Oliver.

Garnier, an associate producer and technician with CBC Radio, noticed the bag when he left to run an errand around 7:30 p.m.

"What I initially thought was that one of my neighbours had just left the bag there and ran back to their car to grab something," he said. "When I came back to my apartment about a half an hour later, the bag was still there."

Garnier and two other tenants then checked inside the bag to find out who it belonged to. They found a batch of Morton's business cards.

"I tried not to read any of the files. Only enough so that I would be able to identify who the bag belonged to," Garnier said.

"I didn't think it contained any personal information, that wasn't a huge concern to me. I guess in the wrong hands maybe it would have been bad. But there probably was information in there that people shouldn't be seeing."

Bag had confidential documents, Morton admits

Garnier first tried calling Morton's office and sending an email, but since it was after regular office hours, he got no response. Garnier then contacted the police.

Alberta Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton. (CBC)When they arrived to get the bag two hours later, Garnier gave a statement to police.

On Wednesday morning, Morton contacted Garnier at work to thank him for finding the bag. Morton then explained to Garnier what happened.

"He and a friend were in the neighbourhood. They had had dinner at a restaurant," Garnier said Morton told him, adding the vehicle may have been running with the keys in the ignition.

"The friend had assured him he had locked the door but, in fact, the door wasn't locked and so the thief just grabbed the bag and ran."

In an interview late Wednesday afternoon, Morton said he felt "really stupid" about the incident and admitted the briefcase contained confidential documents.

Elliott Garnier found this bag outside his Edmonton apartment building Tuesday evening. Due to privacy considerations, CBC has altered the photo to blur the text on the documents. (Elliott Garner/CBC)"I won't downplay for a moment that any minister, including myself, who has documents like that should have been more careful than I was last night," he told CBC News.

While Garnier said Morton told him the door of the vehicle might have been unlocked, Morton said he checked with his friend, who assured him on Wednesday that it was locked. He also said the vehicle was not running.

Morton says he has a good memory and says all the documents were still in his bag when it was returned to him. The only thing that was missing was a silver key chain.

"I think it's pretty safe to surmise that the fellow who broke in and took it, rifled through it, looking for what? Cellphones, wallets, cameras, watches, jewelry, and he found a silver key chain, took that and dumped the rest," he says.

Incident to be probed by auditor general

Alberta auditor general Fred Dunn said he was "surprised and disappointed" to hear that the briefcase containing potentially sensitive government documents was left in an unsecured location.

"It should have been protected. At minimum I would have expected the responsible party to have put it in the trunk, out of sight, and at least locked it in there," Dunn said. "But preferably, would have taken it with the individual into the restaurant."

Government policy is supposed to ensure information on USB thumb drives is encryption-protected, Dunn added.

"I'd expect that the chief security officer would be also interested to make sure that the information on the USB key was properly protected," he said.

Dunn said his office will look into the incident.

"When this has happened to a couple of ministers federally, there was some serious calls for resignation," said David Swann, leader of Alberta's opposition Liberal Party.

Swann was referring to Maxime Bernier, who lost his job as minister of foreign affairs in May 2008 after leaving sensitive documents at his girlfriend's apartment.

Swann said he wants to know more before he calls for Morton to resign, but added the incident "does raise questions about whether this minister is fufilling his responsibility to the people and properly guarding the important information that Albertans expect him to."