South Strabane police charge Texas man with using card skimmer
A Texas man was arrested Sunday by South Strabane Township police for allegedly using a card skimmer in an attempt to obtain bank information from an automated teller machine.
Nicu S. Pantelica, 28, of Houston, is charged with access device fraud, possession of unlawful device-making equipment, identity theft and possessing instruments of a crime.
Police learned a skimmer device had been found on an ATM at First Federal of Greene County, 460 Washington Road. The device is designed to copy the date, including the personal identification number.
South Strabane police, assisted by U.S. Secret Service, conducted surveillance at the bank over the weekend. The ATM was placed out of service to minimize traffic from legitimate customers, according to court documents.
A van was spotted parked at the ATM about 7:30 p.m. and appeared to be there longer than it needed to be, police said. Police tried to stop the van at the intersection of Washington Road (Route 19) and the Northgate Plaza trafficway, but the driver continued before stopping on Cameron Road.
A girl, identified as his sister, was also in the van and appeared to be concealing a bag. Inside the bag were a device used to capture PIN numbers of a card, a magnetic strip reader, more than $5,000 and receipts from the bank. Police also spotted more than 40 cards in the van. Most of the cards were Vanilla Visa gift cards, some with stickers bearing a four-digit code believe to be PIN numbers of compromised accounts.
Pantelica told Sgt. Michael Manfredi, who filed the charges, he was traveling from Texas to New York.
Pantelica was arraigned before District Judge Joshua Kanalis and placed in Washington County jail on $500,000 bond. He faces a Dec. 26 preliminary hearing before District Judge Jay Weller.