The FBI is warning sports leagues that star athletes who display valuables on social media are vulnerable to thieves familiar with their often public travel schedules.
The office recently issued the best practices memo as part of a long-standing practice of communicating with private companies about crime trends, a U.S. official briefed on the matter said.
The memo, a “liaison information report,” urges leagues to advise athletes to limit images of valuables, such as cash, jewelry and electronics, on their public accounts, the official said.
Star athletes and their loved ones who have been victims of theft this year include Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis Jr., quarterback Cincinnati Bengals fielder, Joe Burrow, Dallas Mavericks guard, Luka Dončić, and the fiancée of Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Dak Prescott.
The FBI said the thefts described in the memo are likely driven by organized theft groups in South America that conduct surveillance, review security measures and target professional athletes believed to have high-value belongings and money in effective, the source said.
Scott Andrew Selby, author of “Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History,” said: “Professional athletes are being targeted because they have money, and on social media you can easily tell if they have things you can easily steal, like watches or jewelry. And everyone knows when he’s at work.”
One of the most recent victims was Dončić, whose home was broken into Friday night while 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 made off with $20,000, according to police records reviewed by Kansas City, Missouri NBC affiliate KSHB, was reported on Oct. 8, the day after of the Chiefs beating the New Orleans Saints in a “Monday Night Football” game.
The FBI memo includes advice for athletes that is consistent with recent guidelines for league athletes, including keeping boastful images of expensive belongings off social media, the source said.
An FBI spokesperson did not confirm the existence of the memo, first reported by ABC News, saying via email: “While we cannot confirm or deny the existence of any specific investigation, 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 the public to report anything they consider suspicious to authorities.”
Authorities have alleged that South American crews are involved in a series of burglaries at high-net-worth properties from Southern California to Dallas and 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 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 that their investigation into the robbery is ongoing.
Authorities have not said that Reeves’ case is related to burglaries at the homes of star athletes, but there are clear similarities to a wave of burglaries targeting the rich and sometimes famous in Southern California dating back more than a decade.
The Los Angeles Police Department, 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 the suspects. thieves believed to be part of South American criminal groups for several years.
In the summer, a trio of defendants from Chile and Italy were sentenced to four years in one case and six years in the others for conspiring to commit robbery 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 exemption to come to the country as tourists or businessmen.
The case was “part of a crime wave that has swept our nation where organized criminal gangs, often with criminal records in their own country, are given a visa to the United States that they use to commit tourist robberies,” the U.S. attorney said. San Diego County District. Summer Stephan said in a statement in July.
To the north, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has long criticized the eligibility of Chileans for visa waivers that allow them to come to the United States with 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 exemption can be granted through the automated Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Those who obtain the exemption will be able to remain in the United States for 90 days.
“For the past 18 months, I have been sounding the alarm about a dangerous loophole in the ESTA visa waiver program that is being exploited by Chilean organized crime networks to enter the United States unlimitedly for a period of two years without background check. ” Spitzer said.
Spitzer said thousands of Chileans have traveled on the exemption without much scrutiny, creating a “loophole” for thieves to access the mansions of American professional athletes and others with some ease.
“These criminals are not coming to America to visit Disneyland and other tourist destinations; they are coming here to rob, terrorize 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 late Monday.
LAPD Chief of Detectives Alan Hamilton described at least some of the robbery suspects accused of attacking high-value residences as belonging to transnational gangs that favor the type of communities where star athletes and actors are found.
Thefts, he said, have spread everywhere. Investigations that began in Southern California, Hamilton said, “have resulted in suspects being tracked in virtually every state in the country.”
