Detective’s suspicions result in 44 charges

Just a few weeks ago, San Marcos Police Department Detective Patrick Aubrey was credited with bringing down what was described as a multi-agency crime ring involving stolen equipment and more operating across the state of Texas.

It all grew out of his suspicion while answering a call for a suspicious vehicle.

This week, Aubry appears to have done it again.

Police said Aubry noticed something suspicious again Wednesday morning at the Shell Truck Stop at 209 I-35 North.

He “noticed a subject with a bulk fuel tank mounted on a truck buying fuel,” police said in an email following a Daily Record request for more information concerning a blotter entry. That brought to his mind a case from a couple of weeks prior when the truck stop had called in “a similar suspicious incident where a subject with a bulk fuel tank was using multiple cloned credit cards to buy fuel,” the email said. 

“The detective noticed the vehicle had no front license plate” and was also parked suspiciously, as if to avoid security cameras.

When the truck pulled out into traffic, officers stopped it for the violation of not having a front license plate. That’s when things got really interesting, because the officers could clearly see a credit card reader and partially written credit card number.

When it was all over, officers had discovered 43 cloned cards in the possession of Austin resident Victor Manuel Martinez Rodriguez, 27.

Rodriguez was arrested for 43 counts of credit/debit card abuse, all state jail felonies and one of fraudulent possession or use of identifying information, a second degree felony.

Police acknowledged that’s just the beginning of the investigation. “We do not know where the cloned cards came from,” the email said. “Some of this will still need to be followed up on by investigators.

According to creditnet.com, cloned or “skimmed” credit cards are created when someone obtains an individual’s credit card details and then copies them onto a bogus card.