Four charged in gift card cigarette scheme

Four Chicago men have been charged in what Lake County officials say was a unique approach to stealing cigarettes from gas stations.

Assistant State's Attorney Marc Bangser said Saturday the group devised a way to keep the gift cards they were using to buy the cigarettes from being charged and walked out of the stations with hundreds of free packs of smokes.

Deshawn Jones, 22, Mario Garrett, 21, Xavier Burgess, 19, and Marion Burgess, 18, are all charged with felony theft.

Bangser said a Highland Park police officer noticed the men were taking turns walking into a gas station on Route 41 on Friday night and stopped to investigate.

All of the men had purchased cigarettes with gift cards, Bangser said, and the sales appeared legitimate on the card reader inside the station.

But police discovered the men had used a device that blocked the information from the card reader from being transmitted to the issuer of the card and the price of the cigarettes was not being charged to the card.

Police found 13 cartons of cigarettes and 80 individual packs of cigarettes inside the van the men drove to the station, Bangser said.

Police said the men told them they had run their scam at gas stations in Chicago, Highwood, Libertyville and Highland Park.

Bangser said the men would sell the cigarettes to a man in Chicago after each of their buying sprees.

All of the gift cards the men had in their possession were confiscated, Bangser said, and the men remain under investigation.

All four were originally charged with burglary, because Bangser said they had entered a building with the intent to commit a theft.

But Associate Judge Charles Johnson said he could not find probable cause to sustain that charge and instead said the men would face felony theft charges.

Theft carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison while burglary in punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Johnson ordered Jones held on $50,000 bond and set $25,000 bonds for the other three.

All four are scheduled to appear in court again March 18.