Jersey Village police are investigating a skimming device found on a gas pump at an Exxon station on Jones Rd. at Hwy 290. Chief Danny Keele said it appears dozens of credit cards were compromised, including city fuel cards.
Keele said his officers were alerted to the device by an investigator with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. TDLR is tasked with investigating skimming incidents and the agency received several complaints regarding this gas station.
“They inserted the device behind the magnetic strip inside the pump itself,” said Keele.
A skimming device surreptitiously captures data from credit or debit cards inserted into a card reader used to complete a purchase. Keele said the thieves broke into a gas pump to install their device.
“They also installed a pinhole camera right above the keypad on this one," said Keele.
Keele said the thieves would then record people entering their PIN or zip code to use the information in conjunction with the stolen card information. This gas station was also frequently used by city of Jersey Village vehicles.
“Our officers fill up there every single day. Not only do our officers utilize that, our fire department, our fire marshal’s office utilizes the pumps. There are public works vehicles that utilize the pumps there,“ said Keele.
A search warrant filed by Jersey Village police reads the crooks used stolen information from city credit cards to make 42 fraudulent purchases, totaling $12,265.62, at different gas station over a 19-day period.
Keele said around the same time the TDLR investigator was looking into reports of a skimmer at the gas station, the city was receiving fraud alerts.
“The last report that I had we were roughly around 30 victims that had been identified, but there’s potentially more,” said Keele.
“Including the city or in addition?” asked KPRC 2 Investigates Robert Arnold.
“In addition to the city,” said Keele.
“Do you think he knew he was hitting a pump that was used by city vehicles?” asked Arnold.
“I don’t think so, I think he was just obtaining any data he could,” said Keele.
Once detectives had the location of fraudulent charges on city cards, they were able to obtain video of two cars pulling up to pumps and using the stolen information.
“We spent several hours looking through thousands of images, and lo and behold, we found the BMW and the truck on multiple automatic license plate readers,” said Keele.
Detectives then tracked the vehicles to a northwest Houston apartment complex. Detectives then searched an apartment and found 13-pounds of marijuana, more than $2,000 in cash, laptop computers, skimmer devices, hard drives, flash drives, damaged credit and debit cards, magnetic card readers and encoders and handwritten ledgers with numerous credit card numbers.
Jose Morell, 55, was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and unlawful use of a criminal instrument. Morell is believed to be from Cuba, his passport and an international driver’s license were found during the search.
Morell was released on bond Nov. 28th and on Thursday a bond violation report was filed in the case. Prosecutors report Morell never showed up to be fitted with a GPS monitor and county officials can’t get a hold of him.
Detectives are still going through the data obtained during the search of Morell’s apartment. Investigators have not yet been able to find the person seen driving the second car.
“It’s still an ongoing investigation and it’s far from being over,” said Keele.
Keele warns when using a gas pump to pay close attention to the machine. Look for any signs the lock has been tampered with, whether any equipment is loose, strange holes cut into the front of the machine or strange wires protruding from the card reader or keypad. “Tapping” for payment is safer but not a foolproof way to avoid theft.
Keele said try to use pumps closest to the store, because thieves are less likely to tamper with a machine that is easily seen by staff.
If you suspect a skimmer has been planted on a pump you can also file a report with TDLR.
