‘I just want to go home’: Men accused of planting skimming devices in local counties appear in court

NORTH STRABANE, Pa. — Two Romanian nationals accused of planting skimming devices on credit card readers at stores in Allegheny, Butler and Washington counties appeared in court today for their arraignment.

Constantin Colceag and Raul Cojocaru both told the judge they are truck drivers from England, and wanted to go home to their families.

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“My cousin and I don’t have anyone here in the United States. We took a plane from Vancouver to Seattle with our United Kingdom driver’s licenses,” Colceag said.

Judge Michael Manfredi asked him if he had a passport.

“No, we didn’t use our passports.”

“My mom is 70. My girlfriend is pregnant. They don’t know anything about this. We didn’t have any benefits; we didn’t get any money from those devices. I just want to go home and never step foot on U.S. soil again. I just want to go back to my job as a truck driver,” Colseag said.

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The men are accused of placing Bluetooth-enabled skimming devices at Sam’s Club self-checkout registers and gas pumps at five locations.

Manfredi set bail at $500,000, which both men appeared shocked to hear.

“Isn’t that a bit too much?” Cojocaru asked.

“I don’t believe so, that is your collateral to assure your appearance. If you were released right now, where would you go?” Manfredi asked him.

“Back to England,” Cojocaru replied.

“So I would have to go to England to find you?”

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Cojocaru broke down in tears, covering his face. He finally said, “Sorry, I just want to see my kids and my wife.”

Truck crashes into telephone pole, splits it in half A truck split a telephone pole in half after crashing into it and rolling over. (VIDEO CREDIT: Benjamin Diehl)

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