In the 2019 film Hustlers, Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu portrayed women who targeted wealthy men at New York City nightclubs, drugging them and taking their money. The movie was inspired by a real criminal scheme.
Miami police say a Wisconsin woman followed a strikingly similar method, meeting men at nightlife establishments before accompanying them to hotels or private residences where expensive belongings later disappeared.
Deziree Hood, 21, had already spent time in a Miami-Dade jail over two such encounters earlier this year. She was released on bond while those felony cases were pending.
Now she’s back behind bars. Miami police arrested Hood on October 6 after connecting her to two more reported thefts, and the same detective who investigated one of her earlier cases helped identify her again. Court documents detail the encounters, the missing valuables, and the evidence police used to track her movements.
May 16: A $14,000 Rolex
Hood accompanied a man to a Candlewood Suites hotel in Virginia Gardens on May 16. During their time together, he reported that she gave him an alcoholic beverage or an unknown substance, after which he began feeling dizzy and disoriented. He struggled to remember what happened afterward, and when he regained awareness, his Rolex Oyster Perpetual, valued at approximately $14,000, was missing.
The man contacted the Virginia Gardens Police Department, where Detective Darwin Villavicencio began investigating. Hotel surveillance showed Hood inside the building and leaving after the incident, but detectives also found something more revealing on Facebook: a selfie in which she was wearing or possessing what police identified as the missing Rolex.
Medical documentation from Fastest Labs indicated that the man tested positive for benzodiazepines, a class of drugs that includes sedatives. Villavicencio alleged that Hood had administered or caused an intoxicating substance to be administered without the man’s knowledge or consent. Police also recovered the stolen property and secured it at the department.
May 21: Man Loses $60,000
Five days later, another man met Hood at Club Coco in Miami’s Design District. They spent time together at the nightclub before leaving around 2:30 a.m. for his room at the Icon Brickell building, where they continued drinking. The man took several photographs of Hood and obtained her phone number and Instagram profile before the two fell asleep around 6 a.m.
When he woke around 10 a.m., Hood was gone, along with jewelry and high-end designer clothing he valued at approximately $60,000. He tried contacting her through Instagram and by telephone, but received no response.
Building security later provided footage showing a woman leaving around 7:30 a.m. carrying a large bag and wearing the man’s jersey. Miami Police Detective Selvin Lumbi used the photographs and phone number to identify Hood, then prepared a six-photo lineup. The man subsequently identified her as the woman he had brought to his hotel room.
May 23: Police Arrest Her
Virginia Gardens police arrested Hood on May 23 on charges of false imprisonment and third-degree grand theft stemming from the Rolex incident. Miami police also pursued a separate second-degree grand theft charge over the missing property at Icon Brickell.
Hood entered a not-guilty plea in the Brickell case, and court records show a judge set her bond at $10,000. The bond was posted in early June, allowing her to leave jail while the felony cases continued.
August 9: $110,000 in Gold Chains
A man celebrating his birthday with friends at Booby Trap on the River, a Miami strip club, met a woman wearing a burgundy dress on August 9. After leaving together, they returned to his Airbnb and continued drinking in an upstairs bedroom.
The man placed two gold chains on the bathroom counter, took a shower, and went to sleep. Around 10 a.m., his brother spotted the woman hurrying out the front door while talking on her phone. He woke his brother, and they discovered that the chains were gone. The man reported paying $110,000 for the jewelry.
Miami police collected fingerprints from the Airbnb, which investigators subsequently linked to Hood. Detective Lumbi, who had investigated the May Brickell theft, also visited Booby Trap on the River to review its surveillance footage. He recognized Hood from the earlier arrest and reported seeing her leave the club in the birthday celebrant’s vehicle.
September 11: Another Night at Booby Trap
Just over a month later, another man and several friends met two women at Booby Trap on the River and invited them to a Miami residence. One woman rode with the group while the other followed in a separate vehicle. They arrived between 4 and 5 a.m. and continued drinking together.
The women brought a bottle of Don Julio tequila, and one poured a shot directly into the man’s mouth. He spat it out, but one of his friends consumed several shots. The man later told investigators that he could not remember the rest of the morning.
When he woke, both women had left, and jewelry, clothing, and cash were missing from his vehicle. His roommate remembered hearing what sounded like vehicle doors slamming around 7 a.m. The man also reported noticing an unknown substance in the remaining liquor, while police documented an empty tequila bottle with apparent lipstick stains.
On September 16, he gave investigators a sworn statement valuing the missing property at $25,400.
Lumbi had taken over the investigation two days after the incident and reviewed surveillance footage from the strip club. He recognized Hood again, having investigated an earlier case involving the same reported method of meeting men at nightlife establishments, accompanying them home, and leaving after they fell asleep. The man later identified Hood in a six-photo lineup.
October 6: Back to Jail
On October 6, Hood voluntarily surrendered at Miami Police headquarters with her attorney present. She invoked her constitutional rights and declined an interview before being arrested on two additional second-degree grand theft charges connected to the August and September incidents.
Miami-Dade jail records showed that she had been out on felony bond in both earlier cases when police arrested her again.
Across the four incidents, the men reported missing property valued at approximately $209,400, including the Rolex that Virginia Gardens police recovered. Hood was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center while the earlier felony prosecutions remained pending.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.