It was the furtive swiping under the counter that caught the customer’s attention.
Curious, the customer leaned over the counter to see the cashier swiping his debit card into a portable scanner. A similar device was hanging on the cashier’s key chain.
Before his credit card number could be stolen, the customer grabbed the device and key chain and walked out of the Chinese restaurant. The devices were turned over to the sheriff’s office, where they wound up on Detective Brian Mott’s desk.
For Mott, it was another piece to the puzzle.
Mott already had King Wok restaurant on Powell Road targeted as the likely source of a string of stolen credit card numbers. He started an investigation July 10 after a victim noticed an unfamiliar charge on her bank account from a Tampa gift shop.
Read more in Hernando Today.