WSVN reporter, Michael Hudak ruins career after caught stealing $16K Rolex watch & pawning it [PHOTOS]

Michael Hudak, 29, a WSVN-ABC employee originally from New York, is accused of using a spare key his neighbor provided him in the event of an emergency to enter the home while the neighbor was abroad in July and take the man's Rolex watch, which is worth $16,000, according to court papers.

According to investigators, the reporter pawned the costly watch using his Florida ID.

WSVN reporter first denied stealing $16,000 Rolex watch until data base confirmed his identify to the pawned goods.

When the neighbor arrived home, he discovered the Rolex watch stolen, but there were no indicators that the house had been broken into.

The man informed police that he asked all of his neighbors, including Hudak, if they knew anything about the watch, and they all said no, according to the arrest report. According to the report, a detective received an email on August 9 from an internet database that tracks stolen products indicating that the watch's serial number matched one sold to the pawn shop.

After an investigation revealed that Hudak had pawned the watch, the reporter turned himself in to police on Thursday, WPLG reported.

Hudak faces charges of grand theft, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and dealing in stolen property along with using a false verification at a pawn shop jail records show.

His bond has been set at $18,000 and he remains in custody, jail records show.

The incident led to WSVN releasing a statement saying that Hudak ‘has been suspended without pay’. 

Michael Hudak WSVN reporter arrested stealing and pawning neighbor’s $16K Rolex watch.

The disgraced reporter 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, the dailymail reported.

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.

As of Friday morning, Hudak remained held at the Guilford Knight Correctional Center.