Police: three arrested in connection to skimmer device planted at Oceanside credit union

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Three Brooklyn men were arrested on Sept. 20 for allegedly planting an ATM skimmer device at an Oceanside credit union, according to Nassau County police.

A manager at the Ocean Financial Federal Credit Union on Atlantic Avenue discovered the device on that Wednesday and notified police. The device reads and collects personal information from a debit or credit card’s magnetic strip. Officers then worked with the bank to place surveillance at the machine and several hours later at 4 p.m. police arrested Costel Ionita, 40, Alexandru Panzaru, 29, and Popescu Constantin, 34, all of Atlantic Avenue after they were seen removing the device. No customer data was compromised, police said.

Ionita was charged with two counts of possession of a forgery device and resisting arrest; Panzaru with two counts of possession of a forgery device, second degree possession of burglary tools and resisting arrest; Popsecu was charged with two counts of possession of a forgery device. They were arraigned on Sept. 21 at First District Court in Hempstead.