Police: Rhode Island couple’s identities used to purchase Tesla in Las Vegas

Las Vegas police uncovered a woman’s financial forgery lab after a Rhode Island couple’s identities were stolen and used to buy a Tesla.

Chelsea Heymer, 31, was charged with several fraud related counts and allegedly carried out the crimes while on probation for attempting to possess personal identifying information.

After a trip to Las Vegas in January, a woman reported to Portsmouth, Rhode Island police last month that someone attempted to make a $138,000 purchase of a Tesla vehicle at a Las Vegas dealership with her credit card. She canceled the purchase but was told her driver’s license was used to complete the purchase, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.

Her husband had lost his wallet and phone at Bellagio during the couple’s visit.

The woman discovered her address had been changed on her Rhode Island DMV account to an address in Spring Valley. When she renewed her license, the new card was mailed to the Las Vegas address.

Police traced the email associated with the Tesla purchase to Heymer. During a search of Heymer’s apartment, police found stolen credit cards, other people’s driver’s licenses, a notebook with personal information written inside, stolen mail, a printer, a stolen firearm and a credit card re-encoder.

Heymer was arrested on July 7 in the Circus Circus parking lot. Five credit cards and a forged debit card were found in her purse.

Heymer remains in custody without bail and is due in court on Tuesday.

Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter.