In a swift blow to local credit card thieves, Westlake police, alongside federal authorities, apprehended two men allegedly part of an international skimming operation targeting supermarket shoppers. The bust went down last Thursday after vigilant Market District employees at a Westlake store spotted and reported a credit card skimmer. The device was planted on a point-of-sale terminal, as shown by store surveillance footage provided by the Westlake Police Department, FOX8 reports.
According to FOX8, the scheme unfolded on March 22, when two men were recorded on camera at the checkout lane – one man supposedly distracting the clerk while the other discreetly installed the skimming instrument. The swift operation, however, came undone thanks to technology and alert eyewitnesses. Westlake Police Captain Jerry Vogel noted, "They’re very slick. You can tell they’re practiced at this. They’ve probably done it hundreds of times." However, this time, their rented SUV, complete with Illinois plates flagged by license plate reader technology, brought the suspects into the hands of police just days later.
The two suspects, identified as Romanian national Lazar Petru-Calin and Istvan Szabo from Croatia, were snared when they revisited the Market District in an attempt to collect stolen credit card data, News 5 Cleveland reports. Both individuals presented fake identifications to the authorities but were later unmasked thanks to collaboration with the United States Secret Service.
Westlake police charged the two with possessing criminal tools and assisting in a crime. However, Vogel underscored that the individuals were just "small cogs in a large criminal organization." He told News 5 Cleveland, "It's your classic organized crime. There’s a hierarchy of who does what in this criminal organization. … There’s probably another part of the organization that sells the information that they glean off the skimmer."
According to Cleveland19, the arrested men's vehicle was found to contain skimmer-building materials such as super glue, gorilla tape, scissors, and magnets. Even with the suspects in custody and the skimmer seized, the extent of the information potentially harvested from unwitting customers remains uncertain. Westlake Police and federal investigators continue to work on deciphering the skimmer's reach, urging citizens who frequented the Market District around the time of the incident to keep a close eye on their financial statements for any irregularities.
