NFL and NBA Warn Players to Exercise Caution As Burglaries Continue
With the recent burglary of another professional athlete’s home, the FBI appears to be investigating similar incidents, which began in September 2024.
Although the Bureau did not confirm or deny that an investigation was taking place to news outlets, professional sports leagues and local police agencies claim the FBI is looking into the possible involvement of a transnational organized crime group in the burglaries.
The most recent incident occurred on 9 December, when the home of National Football League (NFL) quarterback Joe Burrow, who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals, was burglarized. At the time of the break-in, Burrow was playing in Dallas, Texas.
“The county police did not confirm if the burglary at Mr. Burrow’s home is included in the federal investigation,” The New York Times reported.
So far, the NFL athletes whose homes have been recently burglarized include Kansas City Chiefs players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. Burglars also broke into the homes of National Basketball Association (NBA) players Bobby Portis, Jr., who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Mike Conley, Jr., who plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves. While he was playing for the Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Towns became another member of this group (he now plays for the New York Knicks).
The burglars have waited until all residents are away from home, opting to avoid confrontation. Along with Burrows, Portis’s home was also broken into while he was playing out of town. Conley’s home was burglarized while he was attending a Minnesota Vikings game.
Both the NFL and NBA have issued memos about the crimes to teams, according to news reports.
The NFL’s memo urged players to take extra precautions when securing their homes (such as making sure security systems are armed) and other considerations to make them less of a target, such as not posting daily updates or photos of expensive items or homes on social media. The NBA also recommended that players update alarm systems and activate them whenever they leave home, remove any real estate listings that depict their homes online, keep valuables locked up and secured, and even consider hiring a guard service or adopting a dog to help with additional home protection, according to the Associated Press.
In a memo obtained by various news outlets, the NBA said the FBI had briefed the association’s security team and had linked at least some of the burglaries to transnational South American theft groups (SATGs).
“International theft groups are typically comprised of individuals from South American countries who travel to the United States to participate in organized theft rings,” the FBI said in an unrelated warning published in April 2024. This type of activity is an example of crime tourism, where members of a group enter a foreign country under the claim of tourism, surveil and target wealthy homes, burglarize the homes, and then return to their home country. “…These theft groups usually target homes in affluent neighborhoods when the residents are out of town, concentrating on the master or main bedroom and taking high end jewelry, accessories, and cash,” the warning said.
In both memos, the FBI allegedly said that the SATGs were well-organized and sophisticated, leveraging drones, signal jamming devices, and surveillance methods prior to breaking in. The groups appear to target cash and luxury items that can be resold on the black market, according to the Times.
With most of the burglaries, the homes’ alarm systems had not been activated, the FBI memos said. The thieves also appeared to exploit times when the athletes were sure to be outside of their homes, such as on game days, indicating the burglars’ use of social media and public records.
In a proactive move, the NHL also warned its teams about the burglaries, according to CNN.
