Take the money — leave the doughnuts!
Two men were indicted on charges they reprogrammed Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards to dispense cash at Queens ATMs, prosecutors said.
Daniel Gheorghe and Ionel Cristian Popa, both 33 years old and from Romania, stole $17,703 from a Chase bank in Hollis using their doughnuts-to-dollars scheme, authorities said.
The suspects, in the country on journalist visas, are being held in lieu of $150,000 bail on a 70-count indictment, prosecutors said.
Originally worth just a few dozen Munchkins, the gift cards were allegedly recoded with stolen bank-account info, providing access to thousands of dollars.
The men were nabbed on March 31 glazing their pockets with wads of $20 bills at the bank’s Hillside Avenue branch, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
They had the thousands of dollars in stolen cash on them at the time, along with 66 rechargeable Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards, authorities said.
They face up to seven years in prison for each of the 66 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and more time for the other counts.