A 40-year-old San Antonio man is accused of using a woman's stolen identity, including an altered Texas driver's license and a Social Security card, to rent an apartment at Pearl Park Apartments off Loop 410. Henry Bustillos faces a state jail felony charge of tampering with a governmental record with intent to defraud or harm, and he was being held on a $20,000 bond, according to court records.
The case traces back to July, when the alleged victim learned her personal information was being used to apply for apartments and open accounts in her name, according to an arrest affidavit reported by KSAT. She received notices about applications and accounts, and a credit report pulled during her search showed an apartment had been rented in her name at Pearl Park Apartments. She also found a LinkedIn profile using her name alongside someone else's photo, identified as Bustillos's, per the affidavit, and investigators said images on that LinkedIn profile and a Facebook account showed Bustillos dressed as a woman.
Forged Documents Allegedly Backed the Application
The rental application submitted online on Aug. 3 allegedly included an altered Texas driver's license bearing the victim's identifying information alongside another person's photo, along with a Social Security card carrying her real name and number, the apartment manager told investigators per the affidavit. Ten days later, on Aug. 13, Bustillos allegedly came to the complex to pick up the key and pay a deposit while presenting himself as the woman named on the lease.
The complex's manager and assistant manager each later identified Bustillos in photo lineups as the person who rented the unit, according to the same account. Investigators also connected the unit to an earlier, seemingly unrelated incident: officers who responded to the apartment on Sept. 5 for a fight call collected a phone number from the resident that later turned up on the victim's credit report, tied to a fraudulent account. An officer in the body-camera footage from that call used the name given by the resident to pull up Bustillos's driver's-license and booking photos and recognized Bustillos as the person in the fake LinkedIn profile, the affidavit states.
Identity-Based Rental Fraud Is Drawing Scrutiny Elsewhere
Other identity-theft schemes tied to apartment rentals have surfaced around the country. Texas investigators separately found more than 400 pieces of personal information tied to 273 people inside a San Antonio apartment they searched in July 2026 under a fraud-related warrant, according to a report by Yahoo News.
In Washington, D.C., two residents are accused of using stolen and fake identities to fraudulently lease apartments as part of a scheme prosecutors say ran from November 2023 to the present, per WJLA, which reported that the scheme allegedly relied on stolen or fabricated Social Security numbers, fake employment letters and Credit Privacy Numbers to secure leases. Nearly all of the apartments involved in that case eventually entered eviction proceedings because rent went unpaid, the station reported.
Florida lawmakers have moved to address similar fraud directly. A new state law that took effect Oct. 1 creates the crime of fraudulent entry of a residential dwelling unit, a third-degree felony targeting people who knowingly use false identity information, counterfeit documents or another person's identity to obtain and take possession of a rental home, according to CBS12. Under that law, landlords can terminate a qualifying lease with seven days' written notice, though the statute does not allow bypassing the standard eviction process or physically removing a tenant.
Bustillos instead faces the existing state jail felony charge of tampering with a governmental record.
