An Emmy-winning reporter in Miami has been arrested for allegedly stealing a $16,000 Rolex watch from his neighbor’s home.
Michael Hudak, 29, who works for WSVN-ABC in South Florida, is accused of using a spare key to enter the home of a neighbor who was vacationing overseas at the time.
The neighbor, who had given Hudak the key for emergency use only, was visiting Spain for two weeks in July when the alleged theft occurred.
The reporter went on to pawn the watch using his Florida ID, police said.
When the neighbor returned home, he found the pricy timepiece missing but there were no signs the home had been broken in to.
After an investigation revealed that Hudak had pawned the watch, the reporter turned himself in to police on Thursday.
He faces charges of grand theft, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and dealing in stolen property, jail records show.
His bond has been set at $18,000 and he remains in custody, jail records show.
Michael Hudak, 29, who works for WSVN-ABC in South Florida, is accused of using a spare key to enter the home of a neighbor and steal his pricey Rolex watch
The reporter went on to pawn the watch using his Florida ID, police said
WSVN said in a statement that Hudak ‘has been suspended without pay’.
He joined the network November 2023 after working as an anchor and reporter for WINK in Fort Myers, according to his now-deleted staff biography.
At WINK, he won on Emmy for his coverage of a tornado that hit the city in January 2022.
That same year, he received an Emmy nomination for his investigative reporting that led to the shutdown of a Covid-19 testing company accused of administering fraudulent Covid tests to the public.
In 2021, he received another Emmy nomination for his coverage of the catastrophic collapse of a 12-story condo building in Surfside.
Hudak’s bio states that he is originally from New York and that he worked as an anchor and reporter at a station in Tallahassee after graduating from Florida State University.
He faces a a maximum of five years in prison for the grand-theft charge.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Miami-Dade Corrections and WSVN for more information.
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