6 January 1–7, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | M I C H A E L H U D A K One of the fundamental principles of journal- ism is that a reporter shouldn’t be part of the story. Apparently, one Miami journalist missed that memo. Just weeks after covering the multimillion-dollar heist of Miami Heat memorabilia by a former security employee — for more about that crime, see Perez, Marcos Thomas, below — WPLG (Local10) reporter Michael Hudak became the subject of a theft investigation himself. In August, the 29-year-old was arrested for allegedly steal- ing his neighbor’s $16,000 Rolex while the neighbor was traveling in Spain. Police say Hudak later pawned the watch for $7,000 and admitted to the theft via text message, writing that “[i]t was a different version of me that took the watch.” WPLG suspended Hudak from his role without pay shortly after his arrest. Miami-Dade court documents in- dicate he has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case is pending. J O S E P H L A D A P O “What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.” No, that’s not a megachurch pastor warming up the congregation; it’s Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo offering his extremely scientific, completely uncontro- versial take on vaccine mandates. Last March, during a Miami-Dade Safety and Health Committee meeting, Ladapo called fluoride “neurotoxic” and “toxic to the thyroid,” and eight kids — mysteriously not in school on a Tuesday — parroted his claims. Never mind that the American Dental Association calls water fluoridation the single most effective tool to prevent tooth decay. By July, Florida became the second U.S. state to ban the addi- tion of fluoride to public water systems. Then in September, Ladapo stood with Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce that he wants Florida to end all vaccine mandates. Politicians across the spectrum condemned the move as mea- sles cases hit their highest levels since 2000, killing three unvaccinated people, including two children in Texas. M A R C O S T O M A S P E R E Z In a city full of schemers, a for- mer police offi- cer and Miami Heat employee may merit the dubious dis- tinction of 2025’s most au- dacious thief. Marcos Tomas Perez stole mil- lions of dollars’ worth of Heat game-worn jerseys and memo- rabilia and sold them to online brokers, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in early August. A 25-year veteran of the Miami Police Department, Perez went to work for the National Basketball Association in 2022 as a security officer for the Heat. He worked game-day security at the Kaseya Center, where “he was among a limited num- ber of trusted individuals with access to a se- cured equipment room,” according to a DOJ press release. Over the course of his tenure, Perez stole more than 400 game-worn jerseys and other items, flipping more than 100 of them for a total of nearly $2 million. “As an example, Perez sold a game-worn LeBron James Miami Heat NBA Finals jersey for ap- proximately $100,000. That same jersey later sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.7 million,” according to the feds. Two weeks after he was charged, the 62-year-old defendant agreed to plead guilty to a single count of transporting stolen goods, though at this writing, the two sides are still wrangling about how much time the ex-cop ought to serve for his pur- loinings. L E S L I E R O B E R T S A retired FBI agent who devoted his three- decade career to investigating art fraud worldwide told New Times that he’ll never forget Leslie Roberts, owner of the now-shut- tered Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove. The five-foot-three, toupee-topped art dealer and TikTok luminary has claimed to be a “native New Yorker turned Miami cul- tural icon” who studied art business and art history at New York University and interned at Sotheby’s. In the real world, however, Les Roberts grew up in Miami. After his mother shot and killed his father when he was 13, he went to live with his great-aunt and -uncle in Miami Lakes. He later enrolled at the University of Miami but dropped out after two semesters. He has two federal convic- tions on his résumé, one dating back to the 1980s for defrauding his great-uncle and an- other in 2015 for selling forged Peter Max art- work. In addition to a steady stream of lawsuits, Roberts is now facing wire-fraud Dirty Dozen from p5 Art Credit @michaelhudak11/Instagram screenshot CBS News Miami screenshot News4JAX/YouTube screenshot The Stories Your Friends Are Sharing FOLLOW US
