Serial theft suspect in custody after hitting Long Beach businesses with ATM scheme
A man who has robbed several Long Beach businesses with a credit card scheme is behind bars Thursday after he did serious damage to business owner's finances.
Soviya Phuiwandee, a 27-year-old resident of Long Beach, was taken into custody after stealing point of entry sale terminals from local businesses. He would then use the machine to authorize refunds for himself to pocket, according to the Long Beach Police Department.
After arresting him, Long Beach PD investigators seized all of the credit card machines, which critically impacted business owners like Gregg Anderson.
Anderson is one of 10 Long Beach business owners that were hit by Phuiwandee. Anderson's business, "Anderson Paint and Hardware," was burglarized late Sunday night.
Anderson said that more than $51,000 were stolen from his business.
"My bank card processing machine was right here, he unplugged everything. Ran down my parking lot. Hopped the fence. Here today, gone tomorrow," Anderson said. "I've been in this neighborhood and know everyone for the last 50 years, so I'm taking this to heart."
Anderson told Nakano that he deactivated the card machine on Monday. But by that time, the damage was done.
"The trend is to take the credit card numbers. They do a refund to a gift card, and obviously use that gift card to make purchases," LBPD Lt. James Richardson said.
Within the first 15 minutes of stealing the card terminal, the thief tried to make $5,400 worth of transactions. Within the next day, that number jumped tenfold.