‘Burglary tourism’: Foreign crews target homes of star athletes, rich and famous in D.C. suburb

Foreign “burglary tourists” are behind a nationwide crime wave targeting homes of the rich and famous, and now they are breaking into houses in the Washington metropolitan area’s wealthy suburbs.

The lavish estates in Potomac, Maryland, are being raided by sophisticated crime rings that law enforcement officials say are known to burglarize ritzy enclaves in California, New York and the homes of superstar athletes nationwide.

Theft crews, mainly from South America, abuse a friendly tourism visa so they can surveil high-end American neighborhoods, figure out which residents are out of town and pull off well-rehearsed burglaries.

“They were like ninjas. A couple of guys climbed up onto my bedroom balcony, broke through our window and took our safe,” one Potomac resident, who asked that his name be withheld, told The Washington Times. “They were in and out in about 14 minutes.”

The resident said he and his family were vacationing in Scotland when their alarm system notified them about the September burglary. The thieves stole more than $400,000 in items inside the safe.

Another Potomac resident, a prominent business owner who also requested anonymity, said she was in California with her husband and daughter in July when a lone thief used an extension ladder to break in through her child’s bedroom.

The resident said the thief was startled when he learned the business owner’s mother was watching the house, but not enough to stop him from swiping 10 Hermes bags worth more than $100,000 from her bedroom. She said the bags’ resale value is likely double their original price.

“The detective did tell me that the bags were probably on their way to South America and that I’ll never see them again,” the business owner told The Times.

Burglary tourism is a growing problem in the U.S. as organized criminal crews go coast to coast looking for their next big score.

Police say the thieves often come from Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Citizens of these countries can obtain a 90-day U.S. visa without a background check. The thieves are cognizant of avoiding confrontations during the break-ins to keep law enforcement attention at a minimum.

Burglars prey on wealthy homeowners soon after landing in the U.S. and have developed an appetite for the homes of professional athletes.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s home was ransacked last week while he was in Dallas facing off against the Cowboys.

Police haven’t said what was taken from Mr. Burrow’s home or whether the burglary was connected to a foreign crime ring, but it fits a pattern affecting NFL and NBA players.

“I had a home invasion, and they took most of my prized possessions,” Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis posted on social media last month after the NBA player’s home was burglarized.

River Hills Police Chief Michael Gaynor told Wisconsin media about “striking similarities” between the burglary at Mr. Portis’ house and those at the homes of other star athletes. In October, burglars targeted NFL superstars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

Authorities suspect foreign criminals took $20,000 in cash from Mr. Kelce’s Kansas City-area house on Oct. 7, shortly before the Chiefs kicked off against the New Orleans Saints on “Monday Night Football.” It’s unclear what was taken from Mr. Mahomes’ residence, which was burglarized a day earlier.

The NFL and NBA addressed the trend separately after the burglaries in Kansas City and two others in Minnesota, where the homes of Dallas Cowboys player Linval Joseph and NBA player Mike Conley Jr. were burglarized.

“It’s a transnational crime ring, and over the last three weeks, they’ve focused on NBA and NFL players, and it’s all over the country,” a league source told NFL.com last month.

Heist crews can spend hours or days on stakeouts while picking out a home.

Police in Abingdon Township, an upscale Philadelphia suburb, warned residents this month about thieves sending a fake pizza delivery person or a “well-dressed female” to knock on the door to check whether anyone is home.

Once a house is confirmed to be empty, leaders give the green light to a two- to four-member burglary crew waiting nearby.

The well-heeled valleys of Southern California appear to be a favorite target.

Authorities in Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles, suspect that foreigners who arrive on temporary visas are connected to 175 residential burglaries from 2019 through 2023.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told CNN that thieves sometimes wear ghillie suits to remain camouflaged while staking out or sneaking up on homes.

In Maryland, Montgomery County Police Capt. Marc Erme said the thieves don’t use high-tech gear for their Potomac break-ins but are diligent about avoiding the frequent mistakes of petty crooks.

He said the burglars wear gloves and seem to be careful about avoiding cuts on the windows they break to avoid leaving any DNA trace at the crime scene. After the burglaries in Potomac, the crime groups quickly skip town to evade law enforcement.

Unfamiliarity with the area led to digital evidence that justified criminal charges against a person arrested in a spring 2023 burglary.

“What we found was they literally, in their phone, typed ‘wealthiest neighborhoods on the East Coast,’ Capt. Erme, who runs the Montgomery County Police Department’s criminal investigations division, told The Times. “Obviously, Potomac came up, and then they started looking.”

Capt. Erme said thieves know that most people with security systems don’t have sensors or cameras monitoring the upper levels of their homes.

The business owner from Potomac said her second-floor windows were not wired to her burglar alarm when her designer bags were stolen.

She said the thief was familiar enough with her house on a large, gated property to place the ladder in a blind spot in her backyard.

“This person obviously was scoping out my property and knew the camera angles,” she said.

The business owner and the other Potomac resident whose home was burglarized suspected a neighborhood landscaping company was involved and said police should have investigated the workers.

Capt. Erme said the thieves don’t stay in an area long enough to recruit local accomplices, but the residents said they switched landscaping companies after the break-ins regardless.

Some thieves start businesses to facilitate their burglary enterprises.

Federal prosecutors accused Juan Carlos Thola-Duran, 57, of using his California rental car company to give criminals transportation.

Prosecutors said Mr. Thola-Duran instructed the thieves to max out any stolen credit cards on big electronics or luxury goods before the cards could be frozen.

Mr. Thola-Duran is accused of making $5 million while running the scheme from 2018 until his arrest in July. Five others also were charged.

“Crime tourism is a major problem impacting not just Southern California but our entire nation,” U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada said in August. “These defendants facilitated and directed crime tourists who committed hundreds of robberies across the country. In essence, they acted as quarterbacks for a team of thieves.”

Capt. Erme in Montgomery County said many arrests in high-end burglaries come down to good fortune.

He said a person suspected of invading a Potomac home in fall 2023 was arrested in October after border agents caught him trying to cross back into Mexico. The man was wanted in Cincinnati and Montgomery County and had a burglary-related arrest in Connecticut.

“That was luck that he was stopped that day at the border, and they identified he had a warrant,” Capt. Erme said. “He could have made it back into Mexico, and we may not have ever seen him again.”

Capt. Erme sympathizes with victims who want the police to crack down because the burglaries have shattered a sense of safety in their homes.

The business owner in Potomac acknowledged that the robberies are a “champagne problem.” She said the break-in rattled her so much that she hired private security for a time and only recently started feeling normal again.

“It took, like, a good four to five months for me to feel somewhat safe at night while home alone, which is the worst part,” she said. “Your home should be a safe space.”