RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – Rankin County deputies announced five Florida residents were arrested for allegedly using stolen debit card information.

On Thursday, April 24, the sheriff’s office received information about a man on a scooter using possible stolen debit/credit card information to fraudulently withdraw money from an ATM in Pearl.

Investigators Tyler Burnell, with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, said authorities saw a man riding a scooter back and forth from a nearby hotel to the ATM to conduct the transactions.

After obtaining search warrants, Burnell said investigators conducted a takedown operation and detained five suspects. They were identified as Caesar Allen, Lashuntavia Dequanna Mathis, Takya Princess Mathis, Gary Louis Coley, and Percy James Williams.

Burnell said the five suspects were arrested at the hotel without incident and charged with multiple felonies related to the fraudulent transactions. He said investigators also recovered multiple Visa gift cards, a credit/debit card encoding machine and $5,700 in U.S. currency.

Investigators believe the suspects were utilizing the encoder the imprint stolen debit card information onto the gift cards then use them to withdraw the U.S. currency from the ATM. 

All suspects are currently being held without bond in the Rankin County Detention Center until their appearance in the Rankin County Court.

This is an ongoing investigation. Burnell said further arrests and charges are possible.