Credit card skimmers found in Market Basket stores in Mass. and N.H.

Police are investigating after credit card skimmers, a device used to steal credit card information, were found at Market Basket locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Skimmers were found in Reading, Somerville, Haverhill, and Concord, N.H., law enforcement officials said.

On Oct. 26 in Reading, a skimming device was found on a credit card machine at a Market Basket, the town’s police department said in a statement released Wednesday. A security employee from the grocery store chain reported the incident to police on Oct. 30.

A review from the store’s IT department found that the skimmer was removed on the same day it was installed and before any data could be stolen, the statement said.

A skimmer was also found at a Market Basket in Somerville, said Denise Taylor, a spokesperson for the city’s police department. She could not confirm when the skimmer was found.

An investigation is ongoing, Taylor said.

On Oct. 27 at a Haverhill Market Basket, store employees reported a skimmer was found on one of the card readers at a register, Deputy Chief Stephen Doherty said. The skimmer was installed a day earlier allegedly after “two unknown white males entered the store wearing masks and hats,” he said.

In Concord, skimmers were found at a local Market Basket and Walmart in October. Police are trying to identify two suspects who allegedly installed them.

At the Reading Market Basket, a surveillance video showed that “one suspect distracted a clerk while the other suspect placed the skimming device on the credit card machine,” police said.

Police described both suspects as white or Hispanic men. One was wearing a black hat, face mask, black jacket, white shirt, black jeans, and white shoes, the statement said. Another was wearing a black hat, face mask, black jacket, black shirt, blue jeans, and white and black sneakers.

An investigation by Reading police, with assistance from other law enforcement in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is ongoing, the department said.