Affidavit: Credit card skimmer found at northeast Austin gas station, two suspects arrested

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Two suspects were arrested in connection to placing a credit card skimmer at a northeast Austin gas station, according to an arrest warrant affidavit from the Austin Police Department.

A supermarket, located in the 78753 zip code, also has a gas station in addition to "other retail services," court records said.

A credit card skimmer is a device "designed to set over an existing Verifone card reader on a gas pump card reader on a gas pump therefore making the device practically undetectable by the victims making card transactions at the gas pump," according to the affidavit.

Court records identified the suspects as Rodesley Reinoso-Malagon, 32, and Carlos Roberto Stable-Ramirez, 30.

Both suspects were arrested and charged with unlawful interception, use of disclosure of wire, oral or electronic communications -- a second degree felony, according to court records. They were both booked into jail and released on Oct. 24.

KXAN reached out to Reinoso-Malagon's attorney, who said they had no comment. We also reached out to Stable-Ramirez's attorney for a statement. We will update this if one is received.

When the skimmer was placed

On Aug. 13, APD was notified of the credit card skimmer placed at the northeast Austin location, and video footage was given to police. Police were able to obtain the skimmer device from the corporate office of the supermarket, according to the affidavit.

That video footage also got license plate numbers from both Stable-Ramirez and Reinoso-Malagon, court records said.

The affidavit refers to Stable-Ramirez as Suspect No. 1 and Reinoso-Malagon as Suspect No. 2.

On July 31, video footage at the gas pumps showed both suspects in one vehicle driving up to a gas pump around 5:15 a.m., according to the affidavit.

Court records said Suspect No. 1 was the one video footage identified as placing the credit card skimmer by "forcefully" pushing it on the gas pump, according to the affidavit. Then, Suspect No. 2 stood in front of Suspect No. 1 to "block" cameras and store employees from seeing what was going on.

Once the skimmer was placed on the gas pump, Suspect No. 1 then tested the device "by running a card multiple times through the gas pump card reader," court records said. Both suspects then left in the same vehicle around 6:19 a.m.

Later in the morning, around 11:51 a.m., both suspects came back to the gas pumps in two separate vehicles, according to the affidavit. Video footage showed Suspect No. 1 get out of his vehicle, and was seen "removing an item" from the gas pump and put it in his vehicle. Suspect No. 2 then blocked what Suspect No. 1 was doing from cameras and store employees once again, according to the affidavit.

Both suspects then got in their separate vehicle and left the area, court records said.

Card skimmers in Austin area and the state

The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center found 35 skimmers at gas stations in Travis, Hays and Williamson counties in 2023.

The center recovered 228 skimmers in 2023 and 396 skimmers in 2022. The intelligence center opened in 2022 and have since recovered more than 5,500 credit cards in its two years of operation, KXAN reported in January.

In 2023, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation said the crackdown on credit card skimming prevented nearly $48.5 million in fraud losses in Texas, as well as recovered nearly 400 credit card skimmers.

Taylor Girtman and Daniel Gravois contributed to this report