HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — A woman is facing a grand theft charge in Broward County after police said she likely drugged and then stole a Rolex from a man whom she met at the Gulfstream Park casino and entertainment complex in Hallandale Beach.
But authorities said that appears to be the tip of the iceberg.
Broward Sheriff’s Office jail records show Seminole tribal police took Lynda Mae Crouse, 32, of northeast Miami-Dade, into custody on Friday in connection with the case.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether she was taken into custody at one of the tribe’s casino properties. The tribe does not own Gulfstream Park.
Crouse’s arrest stems from an investigation that began in the spring by the Hallandale Beach Police Department.
Investigators said the victim met Crouse at around midnight on April 12 at the Carousel Club event venue located within Gulfstream Park at 901 S. Federal Highway.
Crouse and the victim exchanged Instagram accounts and parted ways, police said, but he later ordered her a rideshare at around 1:20 a.m. and brought her back to his home.
According to an HBPD report, as the morning went on, the two had a few drinks, but the victim began to feel “funny” and heard a “clapping sound” coming from the living room as he changed clothes. Police said Crouse, who appeared to be “acting different,” told the man she was leaving and going home.
“The victim was becoming increasingly more tired and confused and fell asleep within minutes of (Crouse) leaving his residence,” HBPD Detective Kevin Hebert wrote.
Police said he woke up still feeling “funny,” but “remembered the clapping sound he had heard prior to (Crouse) leaving the home and he rushed directly to his Rolex box” to find that his gold 40 mm Presidential watch, “with baguette diamond hour markers, and round diamonds covering the entire bezel,” was gone.
The watch retails at $74,350 and the victim had a signed appraisal for $98,400, Hebert wrote.
The victim, police said, “now believed the clapping sound he heard was the lid on the Rolex box being closed” and believed that Crouse took his watch “and when the lid closed loudly, it caused the sudden change in (her) demeanor,” leading her to suddenly leave.
According to police, the victim was still feeling effects from being drugged at the time of the report, which was authored on April 20.
Hebert wrote that a search for Crouse revealed four active cases with a similar modus operandi out of Miami-Dade County, “where she appears to intentionally drug her victims with a sedative substance in order to incapacitate them and steal their property,” targeting men at nightclubs who wear expensive watches.
Those cases stem from investigations by Miami, Miami Beach and Aventura police, authorities said.
Miami-Dade court records do not list any active charges and Crouse, who lives in that county’s unincorporated Ives Estates area, did not appear in its jail records as of Monday morning.
Following her Broward arrest, the Pennsylvania-born Crouse was booked into jail, but she no longer appeared in BSO’s active inmate roster as of Monday morning.
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