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The University of New Mexico has notified 3,000 employees that their personal information might have been stored on a laptop computer that was stolen in California.

The university said Saturday it had notified the employees by e-mail that the laptop was believed to have names, e-mail and home addresses, UNM identification numbers and net pay for one pay period for staff, faculty and a few graduate student employees.

An outside consultant working on UNM's human resource and payroll systems notified university officials about the theft Friday. The laptop and other computing equipment were taken Wednesday night from a San Francisco office.

University officials said they don't believe there's any significant risk of identity theft. They said that without passwords, ID numbers cannot be used to access university systems.

The stolen laptop also might have contained more sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, for seven employees whose information was being used to test the project. Those employees were notified separately, and UNM contracted with a credit watch service on their behalf.

Susan McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the university, said that except for the information on the seven employees, most of the information on the computer "is something we would make public anyway."

UNM doesn't normally give out home addresses, however, "which is why we are taking this seriously and giving them all the tools to watch their credit and make sure no one is tampering with it," she said.

Except for the information on the seven employees who were part of another part of the test project, "most of the information was relatively benign," McKinsey said. "But because the information could identify someone, we've notified everybody."

The affected employees were advised to review a special Web site, www.unm.edu/ID, that includes information about credit checks and services to help people tell if someone is trying to make improper use of their personal information.