Trust burglars to keep coming up with new ideas. One of these is "tourism burglary." Two persons from Chile came to the UK in October. They wanted to carry out as many burglaries as possible by Christmas and leave with the loot. Their sights were on the rich and famous and celebrities. They knew that during Christmas, many of them would be out, and there would be easy pickings. The burglars wanted to utilize the opportunity and make a fortune and selected Cheshire. They broke into several properties in Alderley Edge and Prestbury. Their eyes were on valuables like diamond bracelets, shotguns, platinum wedding rings, and high-value items including watches.
They did put their plans into action but could not rest on their laurels. The law finally caught up with them, and they will serve jail sentences of different duration. The story has the potential of falling in the category of Viral Stories.
Sky News says there were two of them. One was Jorge Pinto Vallejos in his late 20s, and the other was Duarte Vera in his 40s. The sentence of the former was for three years and eight months, while the latter got three years and four months. The charges were for being associated with a criminal group that carried out burglaries in affluent houses in Cheshire before Christmas.
Greed led to the downfall of the burglars
They met their Nemesis when they chose the house of a former Manchester United player.
The first time they made away with high-value items, but they came back for a second round. That was their mistake. It was a four-storied home of Polish footballer Tomasz Kuszczak, and at the second attempt, the motion detectors sensed the action and raised the alarm. That led to their arrest. The incident has left Kuszczak shaken.
His partner feels vulnerable when he is not there. He has now installed a system of round-the-clock CCTV monitoring. The burglars stole Christmas presents of a family apart from jewelry that had sentimental value. Incidentally, in March 2020, burglars had robbed James Bond prop guns from the house of a collector in London.
Sky News quotes Detective Constable Louise Holman, of the Metropolitan Police saying - "These burglaries follow a pattern of targeting affluent areas, mainly in the winter months, where safes would be, and the whole safe is stolen." The Cheshire Police confirmed both of them arrived in the UK in October.
The purpose was to carry out "tourism burglary" and leave the country.
These burglars are repentant
It seems burglars of Chile have been hunting in the UK since 2017 with nearly 300 arrests. Louise Holman reveals this. The police have checked the phone records of Vallejos and discovered that he had been busy organizing the disposal of the stolen goods, especially the jewelry. He was the younger of the two. His defense lawyer says he came from a poor family and moved to Chile from Belgium when he was two. The lawyer says her client is repentant. He wants to "send apologies" to the victims. The second burglar had initially come to the UK to earn a living but fell into the wrong group. He also wanted to express his apologies.
Both of them will be deported after they serve their prison sentences.
The burglars sent back some items to Chile
According to Daily Mail UK, gangs control these burglaries. They fly in the burglars who have to target the homes of the rich and famous. It has been going on for the past three years. In the current instance, police discovered they had sent back some items to Chile soon after the burglaries. Some of these were jewelry sewn into clothing, but police have not been able to recover the jewelry. The duo of Jorge Pinto Vallejos and Duarte Vera were active for 12 days. Their modus operandi was to shimmy up pipes and smash windows to force an entry. The former admitted five burglaries and one attempted burglary, and the latter three burglaries, one attempted burglary and going equipped for theft.