The FBI is warning sports leagues that star athletes who display valuables on social media are vulnerable to burglars familiar with their often-public travel schedules.
The bureau recently issued the best-practices memo as part of a long-standing practice of communicating with private businesses about crime trends, a U.S. official briefed on the matter said.
The memo, a “liaison information report,” urges the leagues to advise athletes to limit imagery of valuables, such as cash, jewels and electronics, on their public accounts, the official said.
Star athletes and their loved ones who have become victims of burglaries this year include Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis Jr., Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić and the fiancée of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
The FBI said the burglaries described in the memo are most likely driven by South American organized theft groups that conduct surveillance, review security measures and target pro athletes believed to have high-value belongings and cash, the source said.
Scott Andrew Selby, author of “Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History,” said: “Pro athletes are being targeted because they have money, and you can easily tell from social media if they have things that you can easily steal, like watches or jewelry. And everyone knows when they are away at work.”
One of the most recent victims was Dončić, whose home was breached Friday night when he was in Phoenix for his team’s 98-89 win against the Suns, his manager said, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.
Burrow’s home was burglarized when he and his teammates were in Arlington, Texas, for a game against the Cowboys.
The break-in at Kelce’s home in Leawood, Kansas — in which thieves took $20,000, according to police records reviewed by NBC affiliate KSHB of Kansas City, Missouri — was reported Oct. 8, the day after the Chiefs beat the New Orleans Saints in a “Monday Night Football” game.
The FBI memo includes advice to athletes that is consistent with recent guidance to the leagues‘ athletes, including keeping boastful images of expensive belongings off social media, the source said.
An FBI spokesperson would not confirm the existence of the memo, first reported by ABC News, saying by email: “While we cannot confirm or deny the existence of any specific investigations, the FBI monitors potential threats and regularly shares information with our law enforcement partners and the private sector to help protect public safety.
“As always,” the spokesperson added, “we ask members of the public to report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
Authorities have alleged South American crews are involved in a rash of burglaries targeting high-wealth estates from Southern California to Dallas to the Midwest in recent years.
On Monday, police in Chile said they recovered a watch belonging to actor Keanu Reeves that was part of a haul of valuables seized in connection with a person who was detained on suspicion of robbery and violence in Santiago.
Police said the watch was part of a case in Los Angeles late last year in which some of Reeves’ belongings were stolen. Los Angeles police said Monday their investigation of the theft is ongoing.
Authorities have not said the Reeves case is linked to burglaries of star athletes’ homes, but there are clear similarities to a wave of break-ins targeting the rich and sometimes famous in Southern California dating back more than a decade.
Los Angeles police, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI have been investigating and helping to prosecute burglars believed to be part of criminal groups from South America for several years.
In summer, a trio of defendants from Chile and Italy were sentenced to four years in one case and six in the others for conspiring to commit burglary in January, when they broke into a home in Carlsbad, a city on the northern coast of San Diego County.
Prosecutors said the defendants used a popular visa waiver to come to the country as tourists or businesspeople.
The case was “part of a crime spree that has plagued our nation where organized criminal rings, often with criminal records in their own country, are given a visa to the United States that they use to commit burglary tourism,” San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement in July.
To the north, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has long decried Chileans’ eligibility for visa waivers that allow them to come to the United States with the little scrutiny. Criminals from Chile and other South American nations travel here, he said, through the Visa Waiver Program, which is offered to 42 nations in exchange for similar ease-of-travel measures for Americans.
The waiver can be granted through the automated Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Those who get the waiver can stay in the United States for 90 days.
“For the last 18 months, I have been sounding the alarm about a dangerous loophole in the ESTA Visa Waiver program that is being exploited by organized crime rings from Chile to enter the United States unlimited times over a two-year period without background checks,” Spitzer said.
Spitzer said thousands of Chileans have traveled on the waiver without much scrutiny, creating a “loophole” for burglars to access the mansions of U.S. pro athletes and others with some ease.
“These criminals aren’t coming to the United States to visit Disneyland and other tourist destinations — they are coming here to steal, terrorizing Americans in their own homes,” Spitzer said by email Monday.
Spitzer would like to see Chileans removed from waiver eligibility.
The State Department, which administers visas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
LAPD Chief of Detectives Alan Hamilton described at least some of the burglary suspects accused of targeting high-dollar residences as belonging to transnational gangs who favor the kind of communities where star athletes and actors happen to be found.
The burglaries, he said, have spread far and wide. Investigations that started in Southern California, Hamilton said, “have resulted in suspects being tracked in virtually every state across the country.”
