Police say a Hallandale Beach encounter led to a home visit, sudden illness and the disappearance of a diamond-covered Rolex.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — A 32-year-old South Florida woman was arrested months after a man told police that a nearly $100,000 Rolex disappeared from his home after he met her at Gulfstream Park, invited her over and abruptly became too tired and confused to stay awake.

Lynda Mae Crouse faces a second-degree grand theft charge in Broward County in connection with the missing watch, according to reporting based on a Hallandale Beach police probable cause affidavit and jail records. Police allege Crouse intentionally incapacitated the man before taking the watch, but the man did not undergo toxicology testing, so investigators did not have a laboratory result showing what, if anything, was in his system. The case drew added scrutiny because the affidavit said detectives found four other active Miami-Dade investigations involving Crouse and men who reported similar circumstances after nights out.

The encounter began shortly after midnight April 12 at the Carousel Club inside Gulfstream Park, the casino and entertainment complex in Hallandale Beach. The man told investigators that he met Crouse there and exchanged Instagram information with her. They went their separate ways after about 20 minutes. Roughly an hour later, he arranged an Uber to pick Crouse up from her residence and take her to his home. Police records cited by several news outlets say the two then spent time drinking together in his living room.

The man said the amount of alcohol he consumed was not enough to explain what happened next. At one point, he went to his bedroom to change clothes, leaving Crouse in the living room. He told investigators that he began to feel “funny” and became extremely tired. From the other room, he heard what he described as a clapping sound. When he returned, he said Crouse seemed to be acting differently and told him she was going home. His tiredness and confusion intensified, and he fell asleep within minutes after she left, according to the affidavit.

Several hours later, the man woke up and still felt unusual. He remembered the sound from the living room and went to the box where he kept his Rolex. The watch was gone. The man later told police he believed the sound had been the watch box snapping shut. He supplied investigators with a signed appraisal valuing the missing timepiece at $98,400. Police described it as a gold 40 mm Rolex Presidential with baguette diamond hour markers and round diamonds covering the bezel.

The man did not seek medical treatment or provide a toxicology sample after the episode, according to the affidavit. That leaves a central part of the police theory dependent on his reported symptoms and on what investigators say they learned from other cases. The man gave a sworn statement saying he still did not feel fully recovered more than a day later. He also identified Crouse from a six-person photo lineup, police said. Those points, along with the missing watch and the timeline he described, formed part of the basis for the allegation against her.

Investigators wrote that a records search connected Crouse to four active cases in Miami-Dade County involving a similar alleged pattern. In those investigations, police said men met a woman at bars or nightclubs while wearing expensive watches, later went with her to a home or hotel and then woke up feeling as though they had been drugged. Their watches were missing, according to the Broward affidavit. Authorities referenced investigations by police in Miami, Miami Beach and Aventura. The affidavit did not establish that Crouse had been convicted in any of those matters.

One of the Miami-area investigations carried an additional piece of evidence that the Broward case does not have. Police said a toxicology test for a victim in a City of Miami case detected zolpidem, a prescription sleep medication. The Broward affidavit noted that the drug can cause sedation, confusion and memory problems, especially when combined with alcohol, and investigators said those reported effects resembled the Hallandale Beach man’s account. Police then alleged that Crouse had intentionally given the Broward victim a similar substance. That conclusion remains an allegation rather than a laboratory-confirmed finding in the Broward case.

The chronology also spans a long gap between the reported April theft and the September arrest. The affidavit was authored in April, according to Local 10, while the warrant remained outstanding until police encountered Crouse months later. Nothing in the reviewed reports indicated that the passage of time changed the value claimed for the watch or the victim’s identification. It did mean that the arrest came after investigators had time to compare the Hallandale Beach complaint with reports from neighboring jurisdictions, which police cited when describing what they believed was a recurring pattern.

Crouse was taken into custody Sept. 11, nearly five months after the reported theft. Local 10 reported that Seminole tribal police arrested her after encountering her in connection with a trespassing call and discovering an outstanding Broward warrant. She was booked into the Broward County jail. Later reports said a magistrate set bond at $2,500 and ordered her to have no contact with the man. She was released after posting bond, according to reporting that cited jail records. Public accounts at the time did not identify an attorney who could comment for her.

The arrest brought the April investigation into the court system, but it did not resolve the competing questions at the center of the case. Police say the man’s account, his identification of Crouse and the alleged similarities to other investigations support their theory that he was intentionally incapacitated so his watch could be taken. The absence of a toxicology result from the Broward victim means the specific substance, if any, has not been publicly established. The four Miami-Dade matters cited by investigators were described as active cases, and the publicly available reports reviewed for this story did not show convictions arising from those allegations.

Authorities also differed slightly in how Crouse’s Broward arrest was described publicly. Some reports, including Law&Crime and Local 10, focused on a second-degree grand theft charge. NBC 6 South Florida reported that arrest records listed robbery and grand theft. Because publicly accessible reporting did not resolve that discrepancy with a later charging document, the narrower grand theft description is the most consistently supported account. The distinction matters because an arrest allegation is not the same as a formal finding of guilt, and charging decisions can change as prosecutors review a case.

South Florida police have investigated other cases over the years in which men reported losing expensive watches after meeting women at nightlife venues and later believing they had been drugged. Those older cases are separate from the allegations against Crouse and do not establish anything about her conduct. They do, however, show why investigators may compare reports across jurisdictions when the circumstances appear similar. In Crouse’s case, the Broward affidavit explicitly cited the Miami, Miami Beach and Aventura investigations as part of the police reasoning behind the accusation.

The Broward case now turns on whether prosecutors can prove the theft allegation from the victim’s identification, the missing watch and the surrounding circumstances described by police. The reviewed reports did not show a later public disposition as of Oct. 21, and the alleged drugging remains unconfirmed by toxicology from the Hallandale Beach incident.

Author note: Last updated Oct. 21, 2026.