Woman charged in theft of $100K watch from Strip hotel room
A Maryland woman has been charged with stealing a $100,000 watch from a man at a Las Vegas Strip hotel.
A Las Vegas police arrest report for Sarah Marie Richards, 32, of Baltimore indicates that detectives were called to the Encore, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South, on Saturday morning by a man who suspected he had been drugged by a woman he met at the Lobby Bar inside the resort.
The man told police that he drank and gambled with the woman before heading to his hotel room. The man, whose name was blacked out in Richards’ arrest report, denied paying the woman for sex, but he acknowledged giving her $1,000 because “she needed help with money.”
He said he soon became ill and lay down on his hotel room bed with the woman.
“(He) woke up at 7 a.m., realizing his wristwatch he sleeps with on was missing off of his left wrist, prompting him to contact hotel security,” police wrote in the report.
The missing Patek Philippe timepiece was valued at approximately $100,000, according to police.
Police took a urine sample from the man in an attempt to discern if he was, in fact, drugged. The results of those tests are pending, police said. Detectives, with the help of hotel security, were able to obtain images of the woman who accompanied the man to the room.
The next night, an undercover police vice investigation at the nearby Cosmopolitan resort led to the arrest of Richards. Police said an undercover detective was approached by Richards at the Cosmopolitan and that the two discussed prostitution. Police said that after arresting Richards, they realized she was the same woman who had gone to the room with the man at the Encore.
Police said Richards has prior prostitution-related arrests in Las Vegas. She told a detective she went to the Encore room with the man the night prior to have sex with him for money, but she said she did not know anything about a missing watch.
Richards is being represented by the Clark County public defender’s office. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for July 14.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.