SAN FRANCISCO (KNX) — Bay Area police have connected a string of recent high-profile burglaries to an international, organized crime scheme originating in South America.
According to a report in The San Francisco Chronicle, police theorize that burglars entering the United States through a visa waiver program stake out homes in affluent communities, then break in to obtain cash, safes, designer clothing and hand-bags, and jewelry.
The thieves reportedly decline to abscond with electronics, which are easier to trace.
Police believe the perpetrators may have advanced training, given the apparent skill involved in outsmarting the security systems of San Francisco’s high-end homes.
In February, Hillsborough resident Kellie Meyers arrived home to find her bedroom door inexplicably locked. She called police, who arrived and proceeded to break down the door. No one was inside.
However, the scene inside the bedroom was “mayhem,” Meyers described, with floor boards pried up, drywall damaged, and wood and glass littering the floor from a closet “ripped apart.”
Meyers claimed thieves made off with a safe bolted to the wall, four Rolex watches, diamond earrings, cannabis, a diamond bracelet, a key to her gun safe, and several designer purses — all worth about $375,000.
The thieves had reportedly circumvented her home’s alarm system, and entered through the double-paned glass of her master bathroom window. Police believe the sophistication of the burglary matches the M.O. of the crime ring allegedly responsible for similar breaking-and-entries in nearby Atherton.
“It was the most horrifying time period,” Meyers told the Chronicle, saying she placed a piece of wood over her bedroom window, kept a loaded weapon on hand at all times, and avoided showering, terrified the thieves would return.
“I’ve never been so deliriously exhausted,” she said. “It wasn’t the jewelry — it was the thought that this could have happened when I was home.”
“The way they’re doing it is textbook,” Atherton Police Commander Dan Larsen told the Chronicle. Residents of the town, one of the wealthiest per capita in the U.S., have reported as many as eight burglaries since January, six of which police have attributed to the crime ring, which is believed to be anchored in Chile.
Police have termed the string of incidents “burglary tourism.”
So far, however, San Mateo County law enforcement have made no arrests in connection with the thefts.
Jaime Alliende, a diplomat representing the Republic of Chile in San Francisco, told the Chronicle his government was cooperating with U.S. law enforcement, “actively and permanently collaborating in sharing information to tackle the problem.”
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