Inset: Lynda Mae Crouse (BCSO). Background: The Gulfstream Park Casino (Google Maps).
A 32-year-old Florida woman is accused of drugging a man she had just met at a casino before allegedly stealing his Rolex watch, valued at nearly $100,000, from his home after taking a rideshare there with him.
Lynda Mae Crouse faces one count of second-degree grand theft over the missing Rolex. However, court documents say investigators believe she may have carried out similar thefts on several other occasions.
The alleged victim told authorities he started feeling “funny” and became overwhelmingly tired while Crouse was at his residence. He also heard what sounded like clapping coming from the living room, according to the affidavit. When he went back into the room, investigators said, Crouse appeared to be acting differently and told him she planned to leave for home.
“The victim was becoming increasingly tired and confused and fell asleep within minutes of the defendant leaving his residence,” the affidavit states. He said he woke up several hours later still feeling unusual and suspected he had been drugged. When he checked the Rolex box he had left in the living room, the watch was gone. He gave detectives a signed appraisal placing its value at $98,400.
The man told investigators he believed the clapping noise he heard before Crouse departed may have been the Rolex box lid snapping shut. The missing item was described as a gold 40 mm Rolex Presidential featuring diamonds around the entire bezel.
Although the victim did not seek medical attention or testing to confirm whether he had been drugged, he submitted a sworn statement saying he had not fully recovered from the unexplained sensation more than 24 hours later.
Authorities said the victim later picked Crouse out of a six-person photo lineup. It was not immediately known whether she had been taken into custody.
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Detectives also uncovered four active cases in Miami-Dade County that they said followed a strikingly similar pattern. In those incidents, according to the affidavit, men wearing high-value watches allegedly met the woman at bars or nightclubs, went with her to a residence or hotel, and later awoke feeling as though they had been drugged before discovering their watches were missing.
In one of those cases, toxicology testing detected zolpidem in the victim’s system, the affidavit says. Zolpidem is a prescription sleep medication that can cause sedation, confusion and memory problems, especially when mixed with alcohol.
Investigators said those effects were similar to what the Hallandale Beach victim described.
“The defendant appears to have intentionally given the victim a similar substance as the one found in the City of Miami’s investigation, and when the victim woke up, the defendant and his watch were gone,” police wrote. “The defendant knowingly and intentionally obtained the victim’s property and did so with the intent to permanently deprive the victim of his right to his property and to appropriate it for the defendant’s own use.”
The affidavit references prior investigations by Aventura police, Miami Beach police and the city of Miami as part of the alleged pattern.
The post Woman drugged man she met at casino to steal Rolex worth nearly $100K from his home: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.