Are the Bay Area's wealthiest cities being hit by 'burglary tourism'?

San Francisco Chronicle

The premise reads like a movie plot: An international crime ring out of South America is targeting the Peninsula’s wealthiest ZIP codes, smashing windows, grabbing designer bags and jewelry.

Police say they believe burglars are relying on tourism visas to parachute in, steal the goods and leave before they’re caught. The theory put forth by police in Hillsborough and Atherton is that the manner of thefts, plus evidence left behind, point to organized crime.

Even as burglaries subside, residents are on high alert. One burglary victim told city officials she believes criminal tourists were sharing information about “vulnerable, lucrative towns,” and Hillsborough is currently “tops on their list.”

SNIP

Police would later describe the features of this burglary as typical of a pattern, one where “tourists” enter the U.S. through a visa waiver program, stake out homes in affluent communities, shatter a window to get inside and flee with a safe, designer handbags or high-end jewelry, ignoring electronics and other items easier to trace. Given the skill and alacrity required to get away with these crimes, police think the perpetrators may have extensive training.

LINK (probable paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Is-an-international-crime-operation-targeting-the-16987327.php

Further details from the link: Police and federal authorities are investigating heists that resemble those in the Bay Area with other in the U.S.

Detectives in Fairfax County, Va., for example, uncovered thefts ties South America and linked it to hundreds of burglaries in 2020. And deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office in Southern California have apprehended several burglars they said were associated with “South American theft groups.”

Controversy abounds, or course, because there's no clear-cut evidence to the link these burglaries to any specific group. But they are happening.

And, if you think this can only occur in wealth enclaves like Hillsborough and Atherton, think again -- it's only a matter of time (IMO) before copycat-like burglaries filter down to more modest locales. They won't be after "designer handbags" or "high-end jewelry" but expensive power tools and even those easy-to-trace electronics.

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