Stolen credit card, cigarette ring busted

When a man tried to use multiple credit cards before finding one that worked while buying cigarettes at Sheetz on Monday, an off-duty town officer paid attention.

That led to the arrest of three out-of-state men and the seizure of stolen credit cards and a cache of cigarettes, according to Woodstock police investigator Scott Thompson.

"We've been having an issue up there [at Sheetz]," he said Tuesday. "We've received several complaints in the past of some activity going on."

The activity involves stolen credit cards being used to buy cigarettes, which are then sold outside of Virginia, Thompson said.

"Some of them are gift cards, some of them are Visa debit cards and Mastercard debit cards," he said.

The U.S. Secret Service is working with the police in determining if the stolen credit cards belonged to local residents, Thompson said.

"It could reach nationwide, as far as our victims," he said.

Three men -- two from New York and one from Maryland -- have been charged with credit card fraud, he said, but would not provide their names, citing an ongoing probe.

An affidavit for a search warrant for Storage Solutions, 1520 Commerce Way, was filed in Winchester Circuit Court. It says that when one man was being arrested Monday, a key to the Holiday Inn at 333 Front Royal Pike, Winchester, was found in his wallet. Three men checked into two rooms using a gift card, the affidavit says.

Woodstock police Sgt. Tyrone Fields took a report of credit card fraud at Sheetz on Saturday, the affidavit says. It says a man tried to buy cigarettes with a credit card that was rejected, walked away from the counter and talked on his cell phone, and then came back with a different card with which he bought five cartons of cigarettes.

The clerk in the earlier case got the customer's license plate number, and the car was found parked at the Holiday Inn, the affidavit says. Inside the car was a receipt for the Storage Solutions, but nothing was seized from the unit, according to the warrant.

At the hotel, investigators seized more than 100 credit cards, about $21,000 worth of cigarettes, and electronic equipment, Thompson said. He said two cars the men were using were also seized.

The Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office and Frederick County Sheriff's Office assisted the Woodstock Police Department and the Secret Service in executing the search warrant, according to town police.