COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Two suburban barbers were arrested at Midway Airport after police saw several fraudulent credit cards fall out of one man's pants and discovered a credit card skimmer hidden near his groin, prosecutors said.
Demar Davis, 37, is charged with possessing counterfeit credit cards. Raymond Scott, 40, is accused of the same crime as well as possessing document-making equipment for the card skimmer police found in his pants, according to court records and prosecutors.
Davis and Scott had already boarded a flight Monday when authorities ordered them off the plane, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said during a bond hearing Tuesday.
After they were taken to a secure area, Scott asked to use the bathroom and was "acting nervous," Scaduto said. Authorities escorted him to the bathroom and saw the fraudulent credit cards fall out of his pants.
Between the cards in Scott's pants and others in a Gucci bag the men carried onto the plane, the two had more than 30 counterfeit credit cards on them, according to court records. The cards were actually gift cards from GreenDot, Walmart and Netspend that had been "re-encoded" with debit card numbers belonging to other people, authorities said.
The skimmer — a device that can be used to swipe and store credit card numbers — was found in Scott's "groin area," Scaduto said.
The arrests were the result of a joint investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Chicago Police.
Both men have criminal histories.
Scott served time in the Illinois Department of Corrections for identity theft, prosecutors said. Davis was indicted on multiple counts of possessing a counterfeit credit card in 2011. But those charges were dropped when he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of using a fake ID.
According to court records, Davis and Scott are "self-employed barbers."
A Cook County judge ordered Davis, of Summit, held on $200,000 bail; bail for Scott, of Bellwood, was set at $250,000.
