16-Feb-18 – After recovering dozens of ATM skimmers across the North Side and downtown in recent months, Chicago police may have caught a break – and a man who has been living at a motel near Clark & Diversey is in custody.

Skimmers are small devices planted on ATMs to secretly capture banking information and PINs. After allowing the contraptions to collect data for a period, fraudsters return to the ATM, collect the skimmer, and then create fake ATM cards using the captured data.

Around 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, police responded to a call of a suspicious man using multiple cards in a Fifth Third Bank ATM at 2934 North Milwaukee Avenue. They stepped into the vestibule and found 42-year-old Marius Manolache standing at a cash machine.

An officer asked, “Do you have anything you shouldn’t have?” Manolache’s response, according to court records, was tarjetas, which is Spanish for “cards.” A search of Manolache (left) turned up 17 skimmer cards with PINs written on the back, $3,040 entirely in $20 bills, and his Romanian passport.

Late Sunday night, financial crimes officers spent an hour executing a search warrant on Manolache’s residence – Room 107 of Inn at Lincoln Park, 601 West Diversey Parkway. The cards allegedly in Manolache’s possession contained banking information of at least seven people, including five women, according to police records.

Manolache is charged with felony burglary, felony aggravated identity theft of a person over age 60, and felony theft of identity from more than three victims.

Associate Judge Sophia Atcherson set bail at $5,000, meaning Manolache needs to post $500 to go free.

Dozens of ATM skimming devices have been recovered by Chicago police since October, including several that were planted close to Manolache’s motel – a bank at 644 West Diversey Parkway, another bank at 1345 West Diversey Parkway, a Walgreens at 3201 North Broadway Street, and a CVS Pharmacy at 3033 North Broadway Street, to name a few.

Closer to the Loop, the devices have been found at three Walgreens locations – 410 North Michigan Avenue, 151 North State Street, and 79 West Monroe Street.

No one has been charged in connection with planting those devices.