HAZELWOOD, Mo. — Three men from Houston are facing charges after police said they used credit card information stolen by skimmers at a Hazelwood, Missouri, gas station to make purchases at the outlet malls.
Pavel Rodriguez, 37, Roberto Rodriguez, 43, and Eroilde Tamayo, 34, were all charged with trafficking in stolen identities and possession of a forging instrument after being arrested last week.
Police said they were called to the St. Louis Premium Outlets in Chesterfield Friday, where they received a report of three people stealing sunglasses. When they searched the car used by the men, they found four credit card skimmers, 21 gift cards encoded with stolen credit card information and a computer with a credit card scanner.
Pavel Rodriguez was the only defendant to make a statement. He told police Roberto Rodriguez and Eroilde Tamayo were involved in selling merchandise for cheap, but he said he never knew how they were getting it.
Chesterfield police also recovered thousands of dollars in cash and thousands of dollars in merchandise bought using stolen credit cards.
All three men are being held on $50,000 bond.
Police said they called some of the people who had their credit card information stolen and they all said they all used the cards to purchase gas at a station in Hazelwood.
