LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) — A routine traffic stop in Lancaster County Thursday afternoon led to the discovery of a credit card skimming operation and the arrest of two men. The incident occurred on Interstate 80 near Cornhusker Highway when a member of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Criminal Interdiction Unit pulled over a vehicle for following too closely.
Upon stopping the vehicle, deputies obtained consent to search and discovered a credit card skimming device, various tools, numerous Visa Green Dot cards, and over $17,000 in cash. The two men in the vehicle, Mate Eross, 56, of Brooklyn, New York, and Franklin Delgado, 43, of Orlando, Florida, were arrested on suspicion of felony unlawful possession of a skimming device.
“We still have a lot of investigating to do to see what’s on the cards, how much money is on the cards, and all that,” said Lancaster County Chief Deputy Ben Houchin. “We do not know where they were going. They both told two different locations that they were traveling.”
Further investigations revealed that both men are in the U.S. illegally, prompting notifications to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Lincoln Police Department also assisted in the investigation.
