Oct 11, 2018 3 min read

A Romanian national arrested over the weekend by South Strabane Township police for allegedly using a “card skimmer” to steal money from a bank’s automated teller machine was arraigned Tuesday on new charges filed against him by police in Cecil and Peters townships.

Elvis Eugene Roman, 33, who has no known address, was charged by Cecil police with theft and access device fraud. Peters police charged him with false identification, receiving stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle stemming from Saturday’s traffic stop on Washington Road, when he was taken into custody.

District Judge Jesse Pettit, who arraigned Roman on both criminal complaints filed against him, denied Roman bond on the Cecil charges. Bond was set at $10,000 on the Peters Township charges. Roman has been in Washington County jail on the charges filed by South Strabane police, as well as on a federal immigration detainer.

A license plate that was on a Nissan Rogue in surveillance video of thefts at ATMs at Washington Financial Bank in South Strabane was spotted on a dark Jeep by a license plate reader. The plate should have been on a Saturn Vue.

About 6:30 p.m. Saturday, the license plate reader system indicated a vehicle with that plate was on Washington Road going north in the area of East McMurray Road. The vehicle was spotted circling the S&T Bank at 3402 Washington Road. The driver matched the appearance of the suspect in surveillance video at the South Strabane bank. Police later determined the ATM at S&T Bank had been tampered with.

When he was stopped, Roman reportedly produced an identification card from Denmark identifying him as “Emil Larsen.” He also told police the Jeep was a rental. He was taken into custody as “John Doe.” He later told police he was from Romania and allegedly admitted to crossing into the United States from Canada. The vehicle he was driving had been rented in Ohio and had been associated with similar activities in different states in the eastern United States, police said.

Cecil police Detective James Brose filed charges against Roman after receiving a report Tuesday morning from CFS Bank, 14 Southpointe Boulevard, where employees had received an automatic message the ATM machine was out of money.

Bank employees investigated and determined $16,000 was withdrawn from the ATM Saturday by a man driving a dark Jeep. The driver reportedly pulled up to the ATM and smeared petroleum jelly over the ATM camera, just as had been done at the South Strabane bank. The vehicle returned several times, and the driver made additional transactions.

Brose contacted Peters police Detective Evan Caruso, who told him he contacted Cecil police Saturday about that vehicle being spotted on a traffic camera at Southpointe Boulevard and Corporate Drive. Caruso told Brose about the arrest of the suspect eventually identified as Roman.

Brose forwarded a surveillance photograph of the suspect at CFS Bank to South Strabane Detective Sgt. Ken Torboli, who was able to confirm it was Roman. Torboli also told Brose that Roman was wearing the same shirt seen in the surveillance video when he was taken into custody.

Roman is facing preliminary hearings on the charges later this month and in November.