Suspect has long trail of potential victims

Charges against an identity theft suspect held at the Kootenai County jail continue to pile up as the list of potential victims in Idaho and Washington grows.

Chaundra L. Stallings, 40, of Spokane, now faces facing an additional 18 charges stemming from her original arrest when she was charged with multiple drug and theft crimes.

Stallings was arrested in May when sheriff’s deputies found her and her 2-year-old daughter at a rental property in the Spirit Lake area. A vacation rental agency had reported the rental was secured with a stolen credit card.

The deputies also found a large amount of mail and credit and debit cards in other people’s names.

Detectives identified numerous victims throughout Kootenai and Spokane counties that had been victims of mail theft and credit fraud.

“It appears that Stallings was stealing mail then using victim’s names and personal information to obtain credit cards,” stated a press release from the sheriff’s office. “She had also been sending change of address forms to credit card companies, diverting notification to the victims that there had been any activity on their accounts.”

According to the sheriff’s office’s report, Stallings was also in possession of forged documents and appeared to be trying to make fictitious currency and identification.

Investigators believe Stallings may have been using stolen credit cards to secure rentals at several area vacation homes and moving from one to another every few days.

At the time of her initial arrest, Stallings was a suspect in forgery and theft cases previously reported to the sheriff’s office and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department. The 2-year-old was placed with Child Protective Services.

The stolen mail from Washington was turned over to the Postal Inspector for further investigation. Stallings is being held on a $26,000 bond.