Florida police are on the hunt for a group of flirty thieves accused of targeting wealthy men in bars, fishing for invites to their apartments and then drugging them before making off with Rolex watches, iPhones and credit cards.
Officers have warned men frequenting venues in the Fort Lauderdale area to ‘watch out for Crystal,’ though names of other suspects include Unkisha, Christina, Michelle, Lisa and Heaven.
Some 13 men have claimed they were robbed a collective $300,000 from December through April by women they brought home after meeting in bars, and eight of those claim they were drugged.
‘They are busy,’ Broward sheriff’s Detective Ronald Cusumano said. ‘Once in a while we get cases like this but recently there’s definitely been a spike.’
One victim, Steve Kesto, 34, told the Orlando Sentinel he was chatted up by a slim blonde in red pants and a brunette in jeans while waiting for a valet at a bar called Blue Martini.
The threesome arrived back at his Pompano Beach apartment at 1:44 a.m. where he said the women encouraged him to drink a vodka and cranberry juice.
The last thing he remembers is sitting on his bed with the two women before waking up to find them gone, along with the glasses they drank from, an iPad and a $27,000 Cartier diamond and gold watch.
Condo security footage shows the women leaving the lobby at 3:09 a.m.
‘I want these girls to be caught, because when I woke up the next day, I thought I was going to die,’ Kesto said of the February 20 incident. ‘It was just a nightmare. It was really very, very scary.’
Broward sheriff’s detectives released a composite sketch earlier this month of a suspect supposedly called Crystal who allegedly stole $6,000 and four watches valued at nearly $100,000 from a 45-year-old Pompano Beach man after meeting him on March 2 at an expensive Fort Lauderdale restaurant.
When the man awoke the morning after their rendezvous, Crystal’s contact information had even been deleted from his phone.
A 58-year-old Fort Lauderdale man told police he left Vibe Ultra Lounge with ‘Unkisha’ and her friend ‘Christina’ joined them soon after at his apartment where they all showered together.
After, they drank wine and the women left, with his $45,000 gold Rolex watch.
‘Pretty much, men are singled out that appear to be wearing expensive jewelry, especially higher-end watches,’ Cusumano told the Sentinel. ‘(The men) may pull up in an expensive car; they may be approached by one or two females.’
One of the most recent cases took place on April 20 and involved a women who said her name was ‘Heaven.’
A roommate returned to his Fort Lauderdale apartment at 5 a.m. to find his friend passed out naked on a bed with their home in total disarray. The pal said his last memory was ‘dancing with Heaven.’
‘Heaven’ met her 40-year-old victim at Vibe Ultra Lounge and went back with him to his apartment where they disrobed and she gave him a drink called ‘the bomb.’
But when the flatmate came home and roused his friend, they did a stock take and discovered Heaven had made off with two backpacks and five cameras, two laptops, an iPad, iPhone, a watch, personal documents containing banking numbers, loan information and passwords, and the victim’s wife’s passport.
Other bars where the women have preyed include YOLO, Dicey Riley’s and the Elbo Room, according to the Sentinel.
Andy Fox, general manager for YOLO and Vibe Ultra Lounge, told the Sentinel: ‘The owners and staff are very upset about this. All of our staff is being briefed on a regular basis. We will continue to do everything in our power to assist officials in identifying and stopping the individuals responsible.’
