Couple finds card skimmer at Salt Lake County grocery store

Kearns, Utah — Grabiela Juarez and Jonathan Calderon claim Rancho Markets is one of their favorite locations to shop as everyone likes a good deal. According to the pair, they visit the Kearns store once a week. However, on Friday, Jonathan noticed a card skimmer device on one of the payment systems in the business.

“When I walked over to pay, I saw the keypad didn’t look right, looked like it was sitting off, so I gave it a good tug and next thing I know it’s in my hands,” Jonathan said. “I’m glad I didn’t put in my pin; I’m glad I didn’t swipe my card, but I also felt bad for all the people that went ahead of me before I got there.”

The couple claimed to have taken images of what they thought to be the gadget and shared them on Facebook, alerting others to their finding, after filing a police report.

“It affect us, it affects everybody else; we work so hard for our money and we would hate for that to just be taken away,” Grabiela said.

According to Rancho Markets, nothing similar has ever happened at their supermarkets. The asset protection agent at Rancho Markets, Sola Malaga, stated that they are collaborating with the police to apprehend the people they suspect put the skimming device, and they have video footage of them. Additionally, they are taking all reasonable steps to safeguard clients in the interim.

“The method we’ve put in place is checking every keypad in our stores and working with our POS [point of sale] system and the company, our support company, to make sure security measures are put in place,” Malaga said.

Jonathan and Grabiela said that although they haven’t yet experienced fraud with their card, this serves as a helpful reminder for everyone to use caution when utilizing any point-of-sale system.

“Every time I walk up to the register, I always have to inspect the device because nowadays you can’t tell,” Jonathan said. “They’re getting so good at copying the faces, honestly. You just have to be aware.”

According to the FBI, you should check point-of-sale devices for anything loose, cracked, broken, or scratched before utilizing them to prevent card skimming.

Anyone with information regarding the suspected skimming at the Kearns location is urged to get in touch with the Unified Police Department by Rancho Markets.