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Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes recently joined the list of pro athletes who’ve had their homes burglarized while doing their job—one that’s grown to the point where the FBI has gotten involved. That investigation is still ongoing, but it does sound like authorities have gotten closer to figuring out who was responsible.
Getting paid a laughable amount of money to play a sport for a living is a pretty sweet gig, but it’s also accompanied by plenty of downsides most “normal” people never really have to take into consideration.
Sure, you might be able to afford a lavish mansion and fill it with every object and amenity that strikes your fancy, but (as Dan Campbell learned the hard way) there’s only so much you can do to prevent people from finding out where you live.
You can mitigate the risks that come with that information spreading by opting for a gated community or a well-guarded apartment building or condo, but at the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do to avoid falling victim to the actions of unsavory individuals who view you as a juicy target.
Over the past few months, a number of notable names have learned that lesson the hard way thanks to criminals who have managed to take advantage of their very public schedules to orchestrate burglaries that transpired after they left their house for a game.
On October 6th, Patrick Mahomes’ house in Missouri was targeted a day before burglars pilfered $20,000 from Travis Kelce’s home across the border in Kansas when the two men were in New Orleans for a showdown with the Saints.
The break-ins took place around a month after Timberwolves guard Mike Conley Jr. had jewelry stolen from his residence while attending a Vikings game in September and around a month before Milwaukee Bucks big man Bobby Portis offered a $40,000 reward for information that leads to him being reunited with the “prized possessions” he had taken playing.
According to Fox4, police looking into the burglaries targeting Kelce and Mahomes believe they were orchestrated by a “South American crime ring” that has targeted similarly high-end homes.
A security expert who spoke with the outlet said it wasn’t rare for those kinds of operations to spend weeks gathering intelligence before executing the robberies that can be facilitated with the help of information obtained by associates who manage to infiltrate homes in ritzy neighborhoods while doing construction or other forms of labor that allow them to gain access.
It doesn’t sound like any arrests are imminent (it could be a while given the international nature of the cartel allegedly behind the spree), but it does seem like the law enforcement agencies on the case have a pretty good idea of who’s responsible.