LOS ANGELES, FL-Congressmen arrested three men and a North Carolina woman on Thursday for trying to defraud money from Internet gaming facilities in Columbia County.
Gabrien Brooks, 25; Jordan Stoney, 23; Khadijah Thomas, 27; According to a copy of the arrest report received from News4Jax, this year Brandon Walls, 31, was arrested on suspicion of multiple fraud charges.
All four people were released from prison on Friday night.
According to reports, Walls and Thomas admitted that they had plans to visit Florida and used electronic cell phone jammer devices to deceive Internet gaming facilities.
The investigation began on Thursday afternoon, when members of Congress were called to an arcade on Duval Street. After employees accused them of using a device to trick them into playing a slot machine without investing any money in the machine, Brooks and Stoney were arrested in the store.
The arcade manager told investigators that he recognized Brooks and Stoney from other casinos and said that they had come to another arcade machine he managed. On Wednesday night, they used the machine to swindle $8,000. This time the manager said that he noticed that they were using cell phone jammers when they tried to charge $900 from the gaming table.
According to the arrest report, the manager called 911 to report the man, and then he and the security department locked the door and let these men continue business until the authorities arrived. Members of Congress retrieved equipment believed to be jammers and large amounts of cash.
Less than 30 minutes later, there was a theft in the second arcade game. A security guard working there told investigators that three people entered the arcade and used a mobile phone jammer. This became apparent after employees received a warning that the machine had been tampered with.
Two of these people were later identified as Walls and Thomas, and they were still in business when members of Congress arrived. After searching her vehicle, six devices that the authorities believed were electronic mobile phone jammer devices were found. It is said that a third person who was not arrested left the arcade after learning that law enforcement officers had been requested.
A store worker told investigators that she was skeptical of Walls, Thomas and the third person because they had to pay more than $100 in fines every few minutes. She said she believes that the three were defrauded of more than $2,200 in the transaction. On Friday afternoon, the third person was still staying with Walls and Thomas.