DUBLIN, OH (WCMH) — A credit card skimmer discovered Tuesday at the Marathon gas station on West Bridge Street in Dublin had been surreptitiously installed inside the pump.

Owner Gary Robson says the skimmer was discovered by a maintenance employee who routinely checks the equipment for skimmers and to make sure the pumps are supplied with paper for receipts. “We had never seen one but he noticed something was unusual on Tuesday morning and came and got me and immediately we locked it up, put a bag over it and called Franklin County,” Robson said.

Robson says the pumps are opened using a master key. He says the same key opens hundreds of thousands of pumps and that there’s no telling how many keys may have fallen into the wrong hands.

The skimmer recovered was a collection device – not a transmitter.

It can be installed in a matter of seconds and intercepts and collects a customers credit card information.

Robson believes that since they found the skimmer before the thief came back for it that it’s unlikely that any customer credit card information was actually compromised.

“We’re telling our customers that we’re proud of the fact that we actually found this,” Robson said. “The county only comes out twice a year for every station in Franklin County. We check them every day.”

The Franklin County Auditors Office confirmed it does examine each pump twice a year plus additional random spot checks.

Anyone who believes their credit card information has been compromised is asked to contact the Dublin Police Department at 614-889-1112.