Thieves in Buffalo Grove, Wheeling take thousands from ATMs
Buffalo Grove and Wheeling police are trying to figure out the common link in a string of automated teller machine thefts stretching from Buffalo Grove/Wheeling all the way to California.
Cmdr. Steve Husak of the Buffalo Grove Police Department said the thief or thieves stole thousands of dollars from unsuspecting customers in the Buffalo Grove and Wheeling area roughly 30 times since Sunday, and used the information to tap into accounts, punch in pin numbers, and make unauthorized withdrawals.
"The majority of them appear to be withdrawals in California," Husak said.
Michelene Harrigan of Buffalo Grove said her First Midwest Bank checking account was overdrawn $131 after someone withdrew $1,000 in two $500 transactions on Saturday and Sunday.
Harrigan said she last used her debit card at a San Diego-area Walmart, the only time she did during a late-August trip to attend a wedding in California. She added, her bank statement noted the $1,000 was withdrawn from a Cirrus ATM somewhere in California.
The bank blocked Harrigan's debit card after noticing the suspicious activity and later reversed the overdraft fees. Harrigan closed her debit card account Monday morning and is awaiting a new card.
Of the 27 reported incidents, 18 of the thefts occurred at ATMs out in California, with a few cases in Illinois and Ohio.
"It adds wrinkles to our investigation," Husak said. "It just makes it a little more difficult to try to narrow down what actually happened, where."
Police received complaints of unauthorized debits of between $200 and $700 on Sunday, Husak said.
Since those initial reports came in, he said, Buffalo Grove and Wheeling have registered about 15 complaints each.
Husak said account numbers and access numbers were somehow mined out of the ATMs or by unsuspecting people using their cards either at ATMs or stores.
"Someone somehow skimmed the card, had the data, and took the money," he said. "So, we are checking video and other things to try and narrow down the suspects."
Husak said police are still working to identify a common form of activity that connects the crimes together.
"It does appear to be some sort of local link in which either a local ATM or a local store, or some sort of commonality happened to all these people," he said.
"As technology helps us in our daily lives, it also creates tougher crimes. But, we are working with the banks, stores and customers to determine a common thread throughout the unauthorized transactions."
Though her bank replaced the stolen funds, "it's an inconvenience," Harrigan said.
"It's one of those things that you didn't know it was this easy for somebody to do," she said. "It's a little bit disconcerting that somebody can actually copy your numbers or card."
Husak warned people should take extra caution when using an ATM because you never know if something was hooked up to the machine to steal their information, or if someone is watching them punch in their ATM access numbers.
"People should also check statements whenever they can in case there are some unauthorized purchases on there," he said. "People should also not use an ATM where a device that doesn't look like it belongs to a machine is hooked up, and check around to see if anyone is watching while they put in their pin numbers."