Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Patrick James Ruda, 38, was arrested yesterday and charged with possession of credit card decoding devices, five cloned credit cards, and 10 credit cards belonging to other people.

At about 4:45 p.m. on September 16, an off-duty University of Florida Police Department officer was flagged down near Tower Road and SW 17th Road by a citizen who said there was a Hispanic male with a gun sticking out of his front pocket. The officer reported that he saw the butt of a gun hanging out of Ruda’s pocket and detained him until a Gainesville Police Department officer arrived.

A warrants check revealed that Ruda had a warrant for failure to appear at a hearing for a traffic violation.

A search of Ruda’s backpack reportedly produced two credit card decoders, five cloned credit cards (plain white), seven white cards with no data, 10 different credit cards belonging to other people, and two identification cards belonging to other people. All of these were reportedly in a box that also contained a card belonging to Ruda’s girlfriend and several credit cards in Ruda’s name.

A detective reportedly confirmed that the five cloned cards had account numbers and names encoded onto the magnetic strip, which requires a card decoder.

Post Miranda, Ruda reportedly said none of it was his and he wanted to speak to a detective. When he spoke to a detective, he reportedly said the box belonged to someone named Dominic who was “into card stuff” and part of “a bigger ring of fraudsters from south Florida.” He said Dominic left the box at his apartment, and when Ruda was recently evicted, he took the box from his closet along with his belongings and put it in his bag. He said he didn’t realize the box was in his bag and kept saying that it was not his.

The detective reportedly asked whether Dominic knew Ruda’s girlfriend, and when Ruda said he didn’t, the detective asked how her credit card got into the box. Ruda reportedly said it must have fallen into the box when he took items from the top of his closet. Ruda was also reportedly unable to explain why his own credit cards were found in the box. The detective reported that his stories were inconsistent, and at one point, Ruda reportedly said Dominic had left credit cards in multiple locations in the apartment.

The detective made contact with the owner of one of the cards, and he said his wallet had been stolen out of his vehicle on August 3 from the Polos apartment complex. The detective noted that the address on Ruda’s driver’s license is very close to the Polos.

Ruda has no criminal convictions. He was arrested in 2021 for domestic battery and battery by strangulation, but the charges were later dropped, and he was arrested in March for armed burglary, but those charges were also later dropped. He has a pending sworn complaint for domestic battery from July. Judge Kristine Van Vorst set bail at $76,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.