Burglaries at homes of Joe Burrow and other star athletes were similar, authorities say
AFC quarterback Joe Burrow, of the Cincinnati Bengals, smiles after he was sacked during the flag football event at the NFL Pro Bowl, in Orlando, Feb. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
The men charged with a burglary at Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s house took photos of themselves flashing some of the spoils — nearly $300,000 worth of jewelry, watches, designer luggage and glasses. One of them wore necklaces with pendants showing the number 9 and “JB9,” Burrow’s jersey number.
One of the men tried to delete the photos from a cellphone as police pulled them over in Ohio, but investigators were able to recover the pictures and included some of them in a new federal complaint filed by an FBI agent that was unsealed Wednesday.
The investigation has spanned several states and led to the arrests of six people. Federal authorities say it’s a story involving South American burglary crews that have been targeting upscale homes around the country and a fencing operation run out of a New York City pawn shop.
In court documents, investigators haven’t publicly connected the Dec. 9 burglary at Burrow’s home in Cincinnati to other thefts reported at other high-profile athletes’ houses, but the complaint released Wednesday said there were similarities in many of the break-ins and the investigation is ongoing.
“In recent months, several agencies across the United States have shared information via email regarding these burglaries,” the complaint said. “These agencies have had burglaries ... wherein professional athletes were the victims. Many of these cases share similar fact patterns.”
Thieves also have pilfered luxury items from the homes of quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs and NBA players Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks and Mike Conley Jr. of Minnesota.
On Wednesday, three of the four men already accused by local authorities of burglarizing Burrow’s home were indicted by a federal grand jury in Cincinnati on charges of transporting stolen goods interstate and falsifying records related to the same burglary. It wasn’t immediately known whether they had retained lawyers who could respond to the allegations.
The Clark County public defenders’ office in Ohio, which has represented the four men in the state case, did not immediately return phone and email messages. All four men are from Chile and are in the county illegally, officials said.
Also Wednesday, two other men charged with running a fencing operation in New York City selling stolen items from burglaries around the country pleaded not guilty through their attorneys in federal court in Brooklyn. Investigators alleged one of the men was linked through phone records to one of the men charged in the Burrow home theft.
Those two men, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy and Juan Villar, were identified by authorities in court documents released Tuesday. Villar’s lawyer, Lauriano Guzman Jr., declined to comment after court Wednesday. A message seeking comment was sent to Nezhinskiy’s attorney.
Prosecutors said a large amount of suspected stolen property was found at the two men’s pawn shop in Manhattan and at storage units in New Jersey belonging to Nezhinskiy.
Federal investigators said South American burglary crews, many in the country illegally or overstaying visas, have been targeting expensive homes next to green spaces, walking trails, golf courses and undeveloped land. They typically have been breaking in through rear windows or glass doors, on the second floor when possible, and targeting jewelry and designer accessories while leaving other valuables behind, authorities said.
That’s pretty much what happened at Burrow’s home, despite a security team watching the property while Burrow and the Bengals were in Dallas playing the Cowboys. Someone at Burrow’s house discovered it had been ransacked and a bedroom window was broken.
The homeowners association gave police a video of a camera on a trail next to Burrow’s house that showed a man walking through the woods with what appeared to be a piece of luggage.
In the criminal complaint released Wednesday, an FBI agent wrote that authorities tracked the suspects to a hotel in Fairborn, Ohio, near Dayton, using cellphone location data and license plate readers. Investigators said they matched data from cell towers to the locations of a vehicle of interest identified by the license plate readers.
Local prosecutors said four men were later taken into custody during a traffic stop — Jordan Francisco Quiroga Sanchez, 22; Alexander Esteban Huaiquil-Chavez, 24; Bastian Alejandro Orellana Morales, 23; and Sergio Andres Ortega Cabello, 38. Sanchez, Morales and Cabello were indicted by the federal grand jury Wednesday.
According to federal agents, Sanchez and Cabello told police that they were vacationing in Ohio to see the snow. Huaiquil-Chavez said he was visiting Ohio with the others but did not know their real names, the complaint said. Chavez acknowledged buying a glass-breaking tool at a Home Depot, but didn’t say why, the document said.
Authorities said they later found multiple photographs on the men’s phones showing items stolen from Burrow’s home.
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.