LANCASTER, Mo.- A pair of arrests have been made in connection to a recent rash of card skimmer devices that have been showing up in local gas pumps. Both men, Yuniesky Rodriguez Hernandez, 28 of Barryton, Michigan, and Evier Carreto Yedra, 35 of Naples, Florida, were taken into custody on Wednesday evening.
Yuniesky Rodriguez Hernandez of Barryton, MI (left) and Evier Carreto Yedra of Naples, FL (right) were arrested Wednesday evening in connection to a card skimmer device found in a fuel pump at the Lancaster Casey's
(Hernandez photo courtesy Schuyler County Sheriff's Department, Yedra photo courtesy of Clark County Sheriff's Department)
According to court documents, Schuyler County Sheriff Joe Wuebker responded to the Lancaster Casey’s location around 7:30 Sunday morning. His office had been contacted by a store employee in reference to a possible card skimmer on pump #2 at that location. The employee informed Sheriff Wuebker that they had contacted Casey’s corporate and had been instructed to wait for Casey’s maintenance staff to open the pump service access door on Monday. The employee further stated that they believed the suspect vehicle was a white Ford pickup from what they could tell on the security cameras. The sheriff was not allowed to view the security camera footage until it was authorized by someone from Casey’s corporate office.
Sheriff Wuebker was notified at 7:00 Monday morning by a Casey’s maintenance worker that they had opened the pump and had indeed found a card skimmer installed. Evidence was collected and the skimmer was seized.
Just before 5:30 Wednesday evening, Sheriff Wuebker received another call from the store employee stating that two male subjects had just broken into the pump. The employee had managed to take pictures of the two pickup trucks that the men were driving before they left the premises. Upon arrival at the scene, Sheriff Wuebker observed that the pump door was damaged and appeared to have been pried open.
The photos showed that one of the trucks, a white Ford F250 driven by Yedra, was apparently being used to block the view of the pump activity from the south so that Hernandez, who was driving a gray GMC Denali HD that was parked on the other side of the pump, could access the inside of pump #2. Both vehicles were parked in such a way that neither vehicle would have been able to pump fuel.
The store employee stated that the trucks left and traveled westbound on Highway 136 before coming back and traveling eastbound. The Denali was captured at 5:05 pm by a License Plate Reader camera operated by the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Department, while the F250 was captured by the same camera at 5:06 pm.
Sheriff Wuebker then contacted the Scotland County Sheriff’s Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol to advise them of the situation and ask them to stop the vehicles if located. A short time later, the F250 driven by Yedra was pulled over by a Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant in Kahoka and the Denali driven by Hernandez was stopped by Scotland County Deputy Sheriff Jason Moss in Scotland County. Both men were taken into custody and placed on 24-hour investigative hold.
A later search of the License Plate Reader camera system showed the Denali passing through Lancaster at 9:57 pm on Saturday night, placing the vehicle near the store in the time frame that the skimmer was placed on the pump.
Hernandez and Yedra are both charged with a class E felony of 1st Degree Property Damage, as well as class A misdemeanors of Tampering with Computer Equipment and Tampering with Computer Data. Hernandez is being held in the Schuyler County Jail in lieu of $40,000 cash-only bond, while Yedra is being held in the Clark County Jail in lieu of $40,000 cash-only bond. Physical damage to the fuel pump was estimated at $1600.
Sheriff Wuebker stated that the card skimmer device that was found in pump #3 at the Lancaster location on March 15th was sent off to the Department of Homeland Security for analysis. In a coincidence of timing, the results of that analysis were received back to the Schuyler County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday morning. The lab determined that there was no data on the device, which indicates that either no one had used the pump since the device was installed, or that more likely the device had been installed incorrectly and therefore was unable to steal customer data.
Sheriff Wuebker indicated that he believes that more severe charges will be filed upon completion of the current investigation. There have been other skimmer devices found in our area recently and he believes that those incidents may be tied to these individuals as well.
