College student stole $547K from her jewelry store job and bought a Tesla, cops say

A 19-year-old college student was caught making expensive purchases with thousands of dollars she stole while working at a jewelry store in Massachusetts, police said.

Bank records revealed the Lasell University student bought a $35,000 Tesla, charged more than $20,000 to a hotel in Maui, Hawaii, and spent nearly $6,000 with Delta Airlines, according to the Burlington Police Department.

She’s also accused of splurging nearly $5,000 on Louis Vuitton items with money swindled from Lovisa, the jewelry store in the Burlington Mall, in a credit card scheme.

Now the woman, of Boston, is facing a larceny charge, police said in a March 9 news release.

“Greed took over. I don’t know how else I would classify it,” Burlington Police Chief Tom Browne told CBS Boston. “When I saw (her) age I was surprised as well and when I first saw the amount I thought it was a mistake.”

Burlington police detectives responded to Lovisa for a credit card machine breach on Feb. 22 and an investigation ensued, the release said.

On three occasions in February, the student, while behind the store’s cash register, is accused of scanning store items and increasing their prices.

Then, police said she refunded the items’ inflated costs to her credit card, which showed eight refund transactions from Lovisa totaling $547,187.

Following a subpoena of her financial institutions, a refund transaction from Lovisa America LLC was found by investigators, according to police.

The student’s dorm room at Lasell University was searched and she was arrested on March 8, police said.

She posted bail and will likely appear in Woburn District Court on March 10 for an arraignment, according to the release.

“If one of my children came home and said they are trying to buy a Tesla while they are trying to go to school that’s certainly going to raise those flags for me,” Browne told CBS Boston.

Lasell University, a private institution in Auburndale, in also investigating the student, according to NBC Boston.

Burlington is about 15 miles northwest of Boston.

This story was originally published March 10, 2023 at 11:49 AM with the headline "College student stole $547K from her jewelry store job and bought a Tesla, cops say."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.