A Miami beach tourist thought he was getting lucky when he met a beautiful Colombian woman — but got swindled instead when the woman, a repeat offender, took off with a $28,000 Rolex he spent seven years saving up for.
Alvin Malhi, a 40-year-old Toronto native, was in Miami’s Nikki Beach for his brother-in-law’s bachelor party when a blond Colombian beauty cozied up to him while he was waiting for a cab back to his hotel.
Malhi, who described himself to the Miami Herald as “not especially attractive,” had spotted the woman, 25-year-old Liliana Vanegas, at the bar earlier that night, where she had rebuffed attention from other men.
Vanegas started flirting with Malhi, a transportation company executive, and asked whether he had any booze in his room at Miami’s Loew’s Hotel.
“She said I don’t like young boys. I like men. I thought, ‘Wow, this must be my lucky day,’” Malhi told the Herald, who first reported the story.
The supposedly lovestruck pair went back to Malhi’s hotel room.
“Of course I wanted to take her to bed,” Malhi said. “But she wouldn’t let me touch her.”
The duo drank whiskey inside his hotel room until they both passed out in the same bed.
When Malhi noticed Vanegas wake up, put her clothes on and leave the room in a hurry the next morning at 7 a.m., he checked his things and noticed his $28,000 Rolex was missing.
Malhi threw on his clothes and chased the woman out into the street, where she was waiting for a cab — she denied stealing the luxury watch.
After two cabs rejected Vanegas when Malhi was screaming at her about the Rolex, she called an accomplice, 30-year-old Francisco Trujillo, who pulled up in a white Mercedes and sped off with the woman inside.
The tricked tourist called the police who were able to catch up with the white Mercedes after a chase and recover the stolen Rolex.
“She fooled me pretty good,” Malhi said.
This wasn't the first time Vanegas had pulled this stunt—according to Miami police, Vanegas and one other woman drugged two men with Xanax and Ambien inside the condo they were renting in the early morning hours of Jan.19 before taking off with $31,500 in stolen jewelry and cash, including a Versace chain and a Rolex.
The two con-women werecaught on the condo development's surveillance camerasfleeing with their loot.
Malhi, Vanegas' latest victim, is married and told his wife “99% of the truth” of his story, telling her that Vanegas was “a stripper we brought back to the room for my brother-in-law,” the Miami Herald reported.
Vanegas has been charged with grand theft and cocaine possession, the Miami Herald reported, and was still in jail Tuesday with a $21,000 bond.
Trujillo was charged with grand theft and driving without a license.
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