Neiman Marcus Group of Dallas announced Tuesday computer equipment containing sensitive employee information was stolen earlier this month from a third-party pension benefits plan consultant.

The company, which operates high-end retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, says it has no reason to believe the data stored on the computer was the target of the theft, or that the information has been misused.

Among the information stored on the stolen equipment are names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers and salary information about 160,000 current and former Neiman Marcus Group employees and individuals participating in the group’s pension plan. The information was current as of August 2005.

Local law enforcement is working with Neiman Marcus’ security group to investigate the theft, officials say. The theft occurred on April 5, according to a company letter, but law enforcement just this week allowed Neiman Marcus to make the theft public, as officials no longer believe doing so would impede the investigation.

The company is contacting individuals whose information may have been stored on the stolen computer, recommending they monitor their credit reports, and will report updates to the situation here.

This latest incident of exposing individuals to identity theft caused by lost or stolen computer equipment follows a number of high-profile examples, including Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital’s loss of nine back-up tapes containing sensitive information about 135,000 individuals; a laptop stolen from a Boeing employee’s car with sensitive data about 382,000 current and former workers, and the theft of a laptop and storage device from a U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs employee’s home, potentially exposing 26 million active and reserve service members.