Anthony Almeida exited his Dodge Ram simply after 8 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2018, Tremendous Bowl Sunday, across the time the Philadelphia Eagles took a 10-point lead over the New England Patriots into halftime.
Safety cameras recording on the Cease and Store grocery retailer in Foxboro, Mass., captured Almeida choosing out a number of objects. He paid with money however entered his telephone quantity right into a bank card terminal to activate the shop’s rewards program. That was intentional; he needed to ascertain an alibi.
A number of hundred yards away, a determine in darkish clothes approached a house he had good purpose to imagine can be vacant: a five-bedroom home that years earlier was described as “larger than a McMansion, smaller than an precise mansion,” in a 2015 Sports activities Illustrated profile of its proprietor, Patriots star tight finish Rob Gronkowski.
Earlier this month, the FBI introduced an investigation right into a string of latest burglaries on the houses {of professional} athletes — together with NFL stars Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Joe Burrow — orchestrated by what investigators are calling South American Theft Teams (SATG). Federal prosecutors charged seven Chilean males for his or her alleged roles within the burglaries, in keeping with a legal grievance unsealed Tuesday.
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Seven males charged for alleged roles in burglaries concentrating on athletes’ houses
The FBI’s Feb. 7 announcement contended that “athletes might have been focused as a result of their publicly out there schedules, making their properties extra susceptible.” The NFL and NBA despatched safety warnings to groups in November, with the NBA’s memo describing the theft teams as “well-organized, subtle rings that incorporate superior methods and applied sciences, together with pre-surveillance, drones, and sign jamming gadgets.”
The housebreaking at Gronkowski’s house, orchestrated by then 26-year-old Shane Denn and longtime good friend Almeida, then 31, lacked that sort of sophistication. Seven years later, Almeida, who stated he didn’t know concerning the plan till the night time of the crime, admits components had been “sort of silly.” And nearly all the things was caught on video.
In keeping with Almeida, who ran a building enterprise on the time, he wouldn’t have been there if not for a special sort of theft try on a Dorchester avenue round 2003, when he was about 17 and Denn was round 12.
“He was getting bullied for … I believe it was a Nintendo 64, and I stepped in,” Almeida recalled. “From that day on, I assume we turned buddies. He appreciated me. I saved him from getting his objects taken from him.”
Almeida stated he would do nearly something for Denn. So when his good friend requested for a carry on the night time of the Tremendous Bowl in 2018, Almeida agreed. On the drive to Foxboro — Denn had gotten Gronkowski’s deal with from a girl he met at a celebration, Almeida stated — Denn advised him his plan to “go test one thing out,” in keeping with Almeida, who stated he reluctantly agreed to assist.
“He wanted a journey on the market, and as we’re driving, he’s telling me whose home it’s and that nature,” Almeida stated. “At first, I didn’t need (any) involvement so I simply stayed within the parking zone in my truck.
“After that, I assume I obtained myself concerned.”
The pair made their approach to the parking zone of the Cease and Store, which bordered Gronkowski’s neighborhood. A safety digicam captured Almeida’s truck backing right into a spot alongside the wooden line near Gronkowski’s neighbor’s home. The NFL star’s home was roughly 120 yards away from the parking zone — the size of a soccer subject, together with the tip zones.
A neighbor’s video surveillance system recorded Denn and Almeida operating alongside Gronkowski’s fence. Round 8 p.m., cameras round Gronkowski’s home and a visitor home on the property captured Denn apparently trying out basement home windows earlier than leaving the property. The police report famous it was “extremely probably” he broke a window and left to check whether or not the house’s safety system was triggered.
Lower than an hour later, surveillance cameras caught Denn inside Gronkowski’s house, at one level breaking right into a locked bed room, and later strolling towards the basement window whereas holding a protected and a bag.
Video footage indicated Almeida’s truck left the parking spot on the Cease and Store and returned to the world a number of instances that night time. Almeida stated he was “about to go away (Denn’s) ass.” However he stayed, and Denn ultimately returned. Almeida stated he grew involved when Denn stated “one thing about weapons.”
“I’m not an individual that carries a gun and even hangs round those who carry weapons,” Almeida stated. “So when he talked about one thing a few gun, it was a like, ‘I have to get someplace and get you and all this sh– out of my truck.’”
After the housebreaking, the 2 males went to one in all Denn’s family members’ houses in Quincy to separate up their take, then parted, Almeida stated. The subsequent day, Gronkowski and his two housemates arrived house from the Tremendous Bowl in Minneapolis and seen the basement door was damaged.
Gronkowski, whose agent didn’t reply to requests for an interview, known as police to report the break-in. No objects of his had been reported stolen. Robert Goon, one of many housemates, had nearly all of objects taken, together with watches, jewellery, uncommon cash and three handguns. In all, the burglars made out with simply in need of $200,000 in loot from his room.
“We failed to show the alarm on after we left,” Goon stated. “However I don’t suppose that might have stopped these guys ’trigger that they had a mission. They knew what they had been doing. They knew how they had been getting in.”
Goon, 44, was described within the 2015 Sports activities Illustrated profile as a “good friend and confidant (who) serves as Gronk’s contractor, dishwasher, airport chauffeur, safety guard and roommate.” He moved out of the home in latest months and nonetheless remembers particulars gleaned from the 2018 video footage, together with Denn turning on a basement gentle and looking out straight at one of many cameras. He wasn’t carrying something to cowl his face, Goon stated.
“To this present day I nonetheless don’t perceive what they had been considering or why he would do it,” Goon stated.
In keeping with Goon, Denn took objects off Goon’s dresser and eliminated the protected, which was bolted to the wall inside his closet. The three stolen handguns, which Goon stated had been locked in safes inside a drawer in his nightstand, troubled him essentially the most.
“They’re lethal weapons,” he stated. “In the event that they’re within the incorrect arms, they’ll do horrible issues.”
It didn’t take lengthy for investigators to zero in on the culprits. Surveillance footage from inside and out of doors the houses, the Cease and Store and, sure, even a Dunkin’ Donuts was listed among the many proof in a 2018 warrant report. A bottle of Goon’s cologne was situated within the woods between the Cease and Store and Gronkowski’s neighbor’s place. Authorities obtained a tip concerning the stolen cash — an 1879 U.S. Morgan Greenback and an 1896 U.S. Greenback — which had been discovered at a vendor’s in Weymouth.
On March 23, 2018, authorities executed a search warrant at Almeida’s house, discovering watches that had been reported among the many lacking objects. Almeida, Denn and Eric Tyrrell, then a coworker of Almeida’s who had tried to pawn the cash, had been in the end arrested and indicted in Norfolk County Superior Court docket. Denn arrived at his 2018 arraignment listening to carrying a Patriots T-shirt.
Almeida pleaded responsible to at least one felony cost of breaking and coming into, three fees of larceny over $250 and one cost of larceny from a constructing. He was sentenced to 4 years of probation.
In 2020, Denn, who didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark, obtained a four- to five-year sentence in state jail adopted by three years probation after his launch. Tyrrell, who couldn’t be reached for remark, pleaded responsible to receiving stolen property and was sentenced to 2 years probation. Almeida and Denn additionally had been ordered to pay a mixed $69,500 in restitution, which Goon stated has not but been paid in full.
Goon stated he and his former housemates stepped up their safety “by 10 instances” following the 2018 incident. His recommendation to athletes now?
“You gotta defend your self,” Goon stated. “If you happen to’re gonna have costly issues in your own home, simply ensure you have the very best safety.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Kevin C. Cox / Getty Pictures)