WSVN Reporter Arrested, Accused of Stealing Neighbor's $16K Rolex

A local TV reporter has been arrested for allegedly stealing — and then pawning — his neighbor's $16,000 Rolex.

As first reported by WPLG Local 10 News, police say WSVN-ABC News reporter Michael Hudak stole the pricey timepiece from his neighbor while the latter was traveling around Barcelona, Spain, for several weeks in July.

According to a Miami Police Department (MPD) arrest report (attached at the bottom of this story), Hudak, 29, had a spare key to his neighbor's home intended for "emergency use only." When the neighbor returned from his trip abroad, he noticed his Rolex had vanished despite no signs of forced entry to his home.

Several weeks later, deputies informed the man that his watch had been pawned. Records showed Hudak had used his Florida ID to pawn it in exchange for $7,000, according to the report. The two men had been neighbors for roughly six months.

The report states that Hudak confessed to the theft in a text message to a witness, writing, "It was a different version of me that took the watch and a different version of me that stole from [name redacted]."

On August 28, Hudak turned himself in at MPD's headquarters and was charged with felony counts of grand theft and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.

As of 9 a.m. today, he remains at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

WSVN told WPLG Local 10 News in a statement that Hudak "has been suspended without pay at this time."

Hudak appears to have been working at WSVN-ABC News since at least 2023. According to his bio on X (formerly Twitter), he previously worked as a television anchor and reporter for WCTV, CBS's affiliate in Tallahassee, and at WINK News, another CBS affiliate, that covers southwest Florida.

In 2022, he won an Emmy Award for his breaking news coverage of a powerful tornado that tore through Fort Myers in January of that year. In 2024, he took home an Edward R. Murrow Award for WINK's "Salvaging Salvaggio" series, which followed a man whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

Shortly before becoming the subject of a theft investigation himself, Hudak had reported on a multimillion-dollar heist of Miami Heat memorabilia involving a former team security employee.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.