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 cellphone quantity right into a bank card terminal to activate the shop’s rewards program. That was intentional; he wished to determine an alibi.
A couple of hundred yards away, a determine in darkish clothes approached a house he had good purpose to consider could 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 properties {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 line with a prison grievance unsealed Tuesday.
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Seven males charged for alleged roles in burglaries focusing on athletes’ properties
The FBI’s Feb. 7 announcement contended that “athletes might have been focused as a consequence of their publicly obtainable 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, refined rings that incorporate superior strategies and applied sciences, together with pre-surveillance, drones, and sign jamming units.”
The housebreaking at Gronkowski’s residence, orchestrated by then 26-year-old Shane Denn and longtime buddy Almeida, then 31, lacked that form of sophistication. Seven years later, Almeida, who stated he didn’t know concerning the plan till the evening of the crime, admits elements have been “form of silly.” And nearly the whole lot was caught on video.
In response to Almeida, who ran a building enterprise on the time, he wouldn’t have been there if not for a unique form of theft try on a Dorchester road 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 suppose we grew to become associates. He preferred me. I saved him from getting his objects taken from him.”
Almeida stated he would do nearly something for Denn. So when his buddy requested for a raise on the evening 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 instructed him his plan to “go test one thing out,” in line with Almeida, who stated he reluctantly agreed to assist.
“He wanted a experience 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 car parking zone in my truck.
“After that, I suppose I received myself concerned.”
The pair made their strategy to the car parking zone of the Cease and Store, which bordered Gronkowski’s neighborhood. A safety digital camera 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 car parking zone — the size of a soccer discipline, together with the top zones.
A neighbor’s video surveillance system recorded Denn and Almeida working alongside Gronkowski’s fence. Round 8 p.m., cameras round Gronkowski’s home and a visitor home on the property captured Denn apparently testing 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 residence, at one level breaking right into a locked bed room, and later strolling towards the basement window whereas holding a secure and a bag.
Video footage indicated Almeida’s truck left the parking spot on the Cease and Store and returned to the realm a number of occasions that evening. 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 people who carry weapons,” Almeida stated. “So when he talked about one thing a couple of gun, it was a like, ‘I must 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 kin’ properties in Quincy to separate up their take, then parted, Almeida stated. The subsequent day, Gronkowski and his two housemates arrived residence from the Tremendous Bowl in Minneapolis and observed 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 have been reported stolen. Robert Goon, one of many housemates, had the vast majority of objects taken, together with watches, jewellery, uncommon cash and three handguns. In all, the burglars made out with simply wanting $200,000 in loot from his room.
“We failed to show the alarm on once we left,” Goon stated. “However I don’t suppose that may have stopped these guys ’trigger that they had a mission. They knew what they have been doing. They knew how they have been getting in.”
Goon, 44, was described within the 2015 Sports activities Illustrated profile as a “buddy 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 mild and searching immediately at one of many cameras. He wasn’t sporting something to cowl his face, Goon stated.
“To at the present time I nonetheless don’t perceive what they have been considering or why he would do it,” Goon stated.
In response to Goon, Denn took objects off Goon’s dresser and eliminated the secure, which was bolted to the wall inside his closet. The three stolen handguns, which Goon stated have 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 improper fingers, they will 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 properties, 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 positioned 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 have been discovered at a supplier’s in Weymouth.
On March 23, 2018, authorities executed a search warrant at Almeida’s residence, 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, have been finally arrested and indicted in Norfolk County Superior Courtroom. Denn arrived at his 2018 arraignment listening to sporting a Patriots T-shirt.
Almeida pleaded responsible to at least one felony cost of breaking and getting into, three prices 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 have 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 occasions” following the 2018 incident. His recommendation to athletes now?
“You gotta shield your self,” Goon stated. “Should you’re gonna have costly issues in your own home, simply be sure to have the perfect safety.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Kevin C. Cox / Getty Pictures)