Law enforcement is blaming a string of California burglaries on gangs of South American “criminal tourists” who rob wealthy neighborhoods before returning home with the loot.
The San Francisco suburb of Hillsboro is just the latest community to suffer from such schemes as traveling gangs of criminals from Chile, Colombia and elsewhere in South America attack communities on the east coast, in Indiana and Texas.
Hillsborough police said they suspect “criminal tourists” were behind at least one brazen robbery that took place last Friday night in the affluent Bay Area, where the median home value is about $5.4 million, according to Zillow. .
CCTV footage from the house captured the moment the thief approached one of the houses and appeared to notice the camera as he quickly backed away.
The shot cuts to a scene late at night when a black car pulls up in the driveway and two thieves leave the house with bags full of stolen goods.
One of the thieves can’t seem to close the door behind him when a third crook comes to his aid.
The thieves load up the car and return to the house to steal more, stealing the homeowner’s SUV and fleeing.
It is believed to be the latest burglary by a criminal tourist to hit California, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and New York.
A home camera captured the moment a group of thieves, believed to be South American criminal tourists, robbed a home in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Thieves with bags full of stolen property and an SUV from the Hillsborough home.
Cameras in the house captured close-ups of the two masked suspects at the front door.
According to Zillow, the robbery was the latest to take place in the affluent Hillsborough neighborhood, where home values average around $5.4 million.
Police in California, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Carolina, Virginia and New York reported robberies allegedly committed by criminal tourists.
Police said the suspects were likely behind another robbery earlier this month, in which four thieves allegedly stole a safe from a house near the Hillsborough Country Club. They said the credit cards in the safe were used in Modesto and Los Angeles County.
Hillsborough resident Matt Gooley told KPIX 5 that the robberies have scared the entire neighborhood and neighbors are constantly worried that someone they don’t recognize might be the robber.
“Recently, I was pulled over by a woman who thought I was a mugger — a thief — and asked me what I was doing here,” Guli said, adding that suspicions are only heightened when someone drives a dark van.
Hillsborough police said the stolen car was located and the thieves’ getaway car was identified as a 2018 Honda Civic or newer.
They added that they were working with other agencies in Southern California to investigate the robbery and suppression of South American thieving groups.
Law enforcement experts say foreign cells of professional robbers – mostly from Colombia and Chile – are entering the country illegally or using a visa waiver program designed to spur tourism from dozens of trusted countries.
After entering the country, they commit a series of break-ins and other crimes, bringing home hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stolen goods, according to the FBI.
Earlier this year, the FBI arrested a gang in Virginia that used the state’s low bail laws to steal more than $2 million in a series of burglaries targeting high-end homes of Asian and Middle Eastern families before skipping bail and fleeing home.
The network of thieves has also been linked to a series of home burglaries in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Texas, as well as a $1 million jewelry heist in Southern California.
Detectives said homeowners from Asia and the Middle East were targeted because thieves believe those cultures keep a lot of expensive jewelry at home and have a cash-driven business.
Dan Heath, Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division, said “South American thieving groups” are becoming more common in the United States, as well as in other countries, including India, the UK and Australia, where they often use similar tactics.
In January, British authorities detained dozens of criminal tourists from Chile who stole more than $200,000 in robberies across the UK.
Fisher, Indiana police also reported a series of expensive jewelry burglaries believed to be linked to outlaw tourists.
“A lot of these burglaries were targeted specifically at jewelry, so more expensive homes keep their jewelry out in the open and they can be really valuable items,” Fischer employee Jessica Stout told Fox 59.
Police in Nassau County, New York, arrested their own gang of outlaw tourists earlier this month after police caught six Chilean men breaking into a wealthy home and stealing thousands of dollars in jewelry and cash.
The FBI is cracking down on South American “criminal tourists” who took advantage of Virginia’s low bail laws to steal more than $2 million in a series of burglaries targeting high-end homes of Asian and Middle Eastern families before skipping bail and fleeing home or for target homes in other states. The picture shows one of the rich areas of Virginia near the District of Columbia, which was attacked by thieves.
The visiting criminals are elated to have found a middle ground in the American criminal system, because their crimes do not meet the requirements of a federal investigation and often go unnoticed because the country is experiencing a frightening increase in the number of murders.
What’s more, neither cash nor the low bail law gives repeat offenders endless opportunities to continue brazen robberies, even after they’ve been caught.
Like Virginia, California is one such state that is being taken advantage of by criminals due to its controversial 2014 Proposition 47 law that bans prosecutors from filing felony charges against suspects stealing less than $950 worth of goods.
Many argue that this particular law has led to an increase in burglaries and crimes across the state, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.
San Francisco is seeing a sharp spike in theft, with police reporting 5,770 cases this year, up 27 percent from the same period last year.
The number of assaults also increased by 6.6%, with 434 cases so far compared to 407 last year, and the number of rapes also increased by 11.4% when 39 cases were recorded.
Although the number of murders remains the same at eight cases recorded this year, and the number of robberies decreased by 10.6 percent, the total number of violent crimes increased by 6.3 percent.