NFL warns players against gangs robbing elite athletes' homes
The thieves are allegedly linked to South American crime groups. Their most recent victim was Linval Joseph of the Dallas Cowboys.
Patrick Mahomes was one of the athletes robbed in recent weeks.
It's easy to know where Patrick Mahomes or Travis Kelce are. All one has to do is google the next Kansas City Chiefs game. Finding out their addresses doesn't present too much difficulty either, many times they are available in public records. Sometimes directly in the players' media or social networks. This has made them easy targets for a new crime ring, the NFL warned.
Mahomes and Kelce were victims of burglaries last month, adding to a growing list, authorities warn, of athletes victimized by thefts when their homes are vacant. The most recent victim was Linval Joseph of the Dallas Cowboys.
The NFL sent a memo this week to team security directors and the players' union warning about organized crime gangs that are targeting elite athletes.
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"It's a transnational crime ring, and over the last three weeks, they've focused on NBA and NFL players, and it's all over the country," a source with knowledge of the events told NFL Network, one of the first media outlets to publicize the NFL's alert. It is believed to be a group with ties to a South American criminal group, according to the source.
In addition to collecting publicly available information, much of it from the players' own social media, the criminals "conduct extensive surveillance on targets, their residences, neighborhoods and security measures," in the words of the league's own memo and picked up by Newsweek. Sometimes they even pose as deliverymen, maintenance personnel or runners circulating in the neighborhood.
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To break in, they wait for homes to be vacant. "Thieves have focused on master bedrooms and closet areas, looking for high-end jewelry, handbags, cash and watches," the memo explains, and even contends that they sometimes look for safes.
The NFL also made a series of recommendations, such as avoiding uploading images or videos with luxury items, waiting until the end of the day to make publications instead of doing it live and installing security systems.
The facts are allegedly also being investigated by the FBI.
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