GURNEE, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Lake County Sheriff’s Police said a 52-year-old man is behind bars after being arrested in a different kind of credit card scam.
Lt. Chris Covelli said an alert gas station clerk on Route 41 in Gurnee became suspicious when a man bought, with two gift cards, more than 300 gallons of diesel fuel. It supposedly had been going into his box truck gas tank, but in reality, the gas was going into 250-gallon plastic containers in the back of the truck.
The clerk knew a small box truck of that size would not take $1,000.00 worth of diesel fuel and it was odd the driver used two credit cards.
Covelli said Ernesto Fallat was “putting diesel fuel into a nozzle which was going into these 250 gallon drums in the back of the box truck where the gas was being stored.”
He said it’s “extremely unsafe to be driving down the road with 1,000 gallons worth of diesel fuel connected with a rinky-dink battery and a pump system.”
According to the Lake County Sheriff's Office, the clerk alerted their supervisor and their supervisor also became suspicious, as the store had recently been scammed during a similar situation. The driver of the box truck left the gas station and the supervisor followed the box truck, after calling 911. The supervisor was able to inform sheriff’s deputies as to the location of the box truck.
Covelli said it was determined Ernesto Fallat, 52, had dozens of gift cards which he tried to dispose of by throwing them out of the window as police were chasing him in the area of the Gurnee-Waukegan border.
Fallat eventually stopped and was arrested for numerous traffic violations.
At least two of the cards used at the gas station had been re-programmed using unknowing victims’ credit card numbers. Lt. Covelli said detectives are going through the dozens of gift cards recovered to determine the identity of the credit card holders.
He said it’s likely the credit card numbers had been obtained by skimmers used at a gas station in northern Cook County.
Fallat was subsequently charged with identity theft, attempting to flee/elude, and several traffic violations. Additional criminal charges are likely.
Lt. Covelli said a similar scam had been carried out a few days earlier at the same gas station. A warrant is expected to be put out for that person’s arrest, too.
Lake County Sheriff’s Police do not know if Fallat had allegedly been working with others. He allegedly had been planning to sell the diesel fuel for 100 percent profit.
“Pretty brazen,” said Lt. Covelli.
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