BROOKINGS – Brookings Police announced the arrests of two men in Florida they say are connected to local debit and credit card fraud cases, Lt. Marci Gebers said.

“Our department was able to work together with several different local, state and federal agencies here in South Dakota, as well as in Minnesota and Florida,” Gebers said, to obtain arrest warrants for two men.

George Enescu, 33, and Teodor Bobe, 26, both of Florida, were arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday and were transported to the Broward County jail in Florida, she said.

Both men were arrested on suspicion of grand theft, possession of forged or counterfeit instrument, and identity theft.

“Right now, we just have those charges,” Gebers said. The two could face charges in three different states.

“The investigation is ongoing,” Gebers added.

Brookings Police received more than a dozen reports earlier this week of unauthorized activity on area residents’ credit and debit card accounts. The BPD advised all local financial institution customers and ATM users to check their own accounts and contact the authorities about any activity they didn’t make.

“We do encourage Brookings residents to continue monitoring their back accounts for any fraudulent activity,” Gebers said.

If anyone else has noticed fraudulent charges on their accounts, contact the Brookings Police if you live in city limits, or the Brookings County Sheriff’s Office if you live in the county.

“We’re working closely with the Sheriff’s Office as well as all the other agencies involved,” Gebers said.

The agencies believe there are other people involved in the case, and authorities need people to come forward with evidence to build the case.

“We’re still getting reports coming in regarding this fraud and identity theft,” Gebers said, adding the number of victims and amount of money stolen is still being calculated.

“Thank you to the people who called in and provided information,” she said.

The case is far from over, but a lot of hard work has already been put into it, she said.

“I’d like to thank our officers and detectives that worked so hard on this case and moved quickly to apprehend these suspects,” Gebers said.

“I’m thankful I have a good group that I work with here and Investigations and they work well together,” she said. “Pretty excited about the arrests.”

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.