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Two men arrested for allegedly placing credit card data-stealing devices in several grocery stores

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Two men have been arrested in connection with the placement of credit card skimming devices at several locations. George Thimons, one of the partners at Community Supermarket in Lower Burrell, is thankful his employees found a credit card skimming device on a card reader on June 28. “The manager saw it was double-sided, taped over ours and didn’t work. So I don’t know if they didn’t know what they were doing or what,” he said. Thimons said no one’s data was compromised. Eddie Kaminski has been shopping at the store for decades and says that while this situation makes him nervous, he won’t stop going to his favorite grocery store. “It would be devastating to have them because I was a union worker at Local 3 when I was retired. And now that I’m retired, every penny counts,” he said. According to investigators, surveillance video shows two men entering the store, one of whom places a skimming device on the card reader. Police then tracked the men on surveillance video as they got into a black Volkswagen. As it turns out, that wasn’t the only store robbery. According to court documents, Lower Burrell police learned that Penn Hills police had found a skimming device at their local Community Supermarket, and Scott Township police discovered a device at a Shop ‘n Save. The men’s descriptions matched at two locations. Additionally, court documents show that the car used by the men had been in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia in recent weeks. Officers called to the car to keep an eye out for it. On Thursday, Bellevue police arrested two men: Thomas Fuchs, who police say attached the skimming device to the card reader, and David Lechner, the driver. Both men now face conspiracy charges. Police said the men did not have valid identification and presented false documents regarding their identities and may be in the United States illegally. According to the criminal complaint, Lechner said he was from Romania and his real name was Alexandru Dumitrescu. According to court records, Lechner told police that Fuchs paid him $500 a week to drive him around and that he knew Fuchs was placing the skimming devices. Lechner told police that another force picked up the devices. Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani explained that there are a few ways to protect yourself from these skimming devices. “Obviously, if you pay cash, you’re not going to have this problem,” Limani said. “If you’re using one of these machines and it’s unattended and you notice something that looks odd, you can compare it to another one. That is, wait a second, take a picture, walk over and basically play as if something looks different on that machine. If it looks like something is loose or maybe not properly secured, that’s a pretty sure sign because these machines should be very intact.”

LOWER BURRELL, Pa. —

Two men were arrested in connection with the placement of credit card skimming devices at several locations.

George Thimons, one of the partners at Community Supermarket in Lower Burrell, is grateful that his employees found a credit card skimming device on a card reader on June 28.

“The manager saw that it was double-sided, taped over ours and didn’t work. So I don’t know if they didn’t know what they were doing or what,” he said.

Thimons said no personal information of anyone was compromised.

Eddie Kaminski has been shopping at the store for decades and says that although the situation makes him nervous, he will not stop going to his favorite grocery store.

“That would be devastating because when I retired I was a union worker in the iron industry with Local 3. And now that I’m retired, every penny counts,” he said.

Investigators say surveillance video shows two men entering the store, with one of them attaching a skipping device to the card reader. Police then tracked the men on surveillance video as they got into a black Volkswagen.

It turns out that wasn’t the only store robbery. According to court documents, Lower Burrell police learned that Penn Hills police found a skimming device at their local Community Supermarket, and Scott Township police discovered a device at a Shop ‘n Save.

The men’s descriptions matched in two places.

In addition, court records show that the car used by the men had been in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia in recent weeks.

Officials urged people to keep an eye out for the car. On Thursday, Bellevue police arrested two men: Thomas Fuchs, who attached the skimmer to the card reader, and David Lechner, the driver. Both men are now facing conspiracy charges.

According to police, the men did not have valid identification and presented false documents to prove their identity. They may be in the United States illegally.

According to the criminal complaint, Lechner stated that he was from Romania and his real name was Alexandru Dumitrescu.

According to court documents, Lechner told police that Fuchs paid him $500 a week to drive him around and that he knew Fuchs was planting the skimming devices. Lechner told police that another crew picked up the devices.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani explained that there are several ways to protect yourself from these skimming devices.

“Obviously, if you pay cash, you don’t have that problem,” Limani said. “If you’re using one of these machines and it’s unattended and you notice something that’s not properly attached, you can compare it to another one. Wait a second, take a picture, walk over and try to figure out if anything looks different on that machine. If it looks like something is loose or not properly attached, that’s a pretty sure sign because these machines should be in very good shape.”

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