South Beach hotel employee steals $6,000 from guests' safe, police say

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A hotel employee in South Beach was arrested Tuesday after he stole $6,000 in cash from a safe that was in a guest room, authorities said.

According to an arrest report, Ihosvany Napoles, 44, was working at the South Beach Plaza Villas on Collins Avenue Sunday morning when the victims left the hotel about 6 a.m. 

Police said the guests told Napoles, who was behind the front desk, that they were taking a bus to Orlando for the day.

When the victims returned about midnight, they found the safe door in their room ajar and their money, which had been placed in a bank envelope, missing.

Surveillance video from the hotel shows Napoles leaving the front desk area shortly after the victims left the lobby and heading for the first-floor hallway, where the victims' room was located, authorities said.

Police said the key lock interrogation for that time frame indicated that someone used a master key to access the victims' room.

According to the arrest report, the safe opening record report also showed that someone used the handheld override machine to open the safe.

Police said Napoles was the only hotel employee working at the time and was the only person who had access to the machine.

He was arrested Tuesday at the hotel on charges of burglary and theft of personal property.