Foreign “burglary tourists” are behind a nationwide crime wave targeting the homes of the rich and famous — and now they’re breaking into houses in the D.C. metro area’s wealthy suburbs.

The lavish estates in Potomac, Maryland, are being raided by sophisticated crime groups that law enforcement officials say are known to burglarize ritzy enclaves in California, New York and the homes of superstar athletes across the country.

Theft crews, largely from South America, abuse a friendly tourism visa so they can probe high-end American neighborhoods, figure out which residents are out of town and then pull off well-rehearsed burglaries.

“They were like ninjas. A couple of guys climbed up onto my bedroom balcony, broke through our window and took our safe,” one Potomac resident, who asked that his name be withheld, told The Washington Times. “They were in and out in about 14 minutes.”

The resident said he and his family were vacationing in Scotland when their alarm system notified them about the September burglary. The thieves made off with over $400,000 worth of goods and items taken from inside the safe.

It’s a similar story to what happened to another Potomac resident, a prominent business owner in the area who also requested anonymity.

She said she was in California with her husband and daughter in July when a lone thief used an extension ladder to break in through her child’s bedroom.

The thief was startled when he learned the victim’s mother was watching the house, the resident said, but not startled enough to stop him from swiping 10 Hermes bags worth over $100,000 from her bedroom. She said the resale value of the bags is likely double their original price.

“The detective did tell me that the bags were probably on their way to South America, and that I’ll never see them again,” the business owner, who asked not to be named, told The Times.  

Burglary tourism is a growing problem in the U.S. as organized criminal crews go coast to coast looking for their next big score.

Police say the thieves often hail from South American countries such as Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru — all nations where residents have access to a 90-day U.S. visa that can be obtained without undergoing a background check. They’re also cognizant about steering clear of confrontations during the break-ins to keep law enforcement attention at a minimum.

Burglars prey on wealthy homeowners soon after landing in the country, and have developed an appetite for going after the homes of professional athletes.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow had his home ransacked last week while he was in Dallas facing off against the Cowboys.

Police haven’t said what was taken from Mr. Burrow’s home or if it’s connected to foreign theft groups, but it fits into a crime pattern affecting other NFL and NBA players.

“I had a home invasion, and they took most of my prized possessions,” Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis posted on social media last month after the NBA player’s home was burglarized.

River Hills Police Chief Michael Gaynor told Wisconsin media there are “striking similarities” between the burglary at Mr. Portis’ house and those at the homes of other star athletes, such as October break-ins targeting NFL superstars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

Authorities suspect foreign criminals took $20,000 in cash from Mr. Kelce’s Kansas City-area house on Oct. 7, shortly before the Chiefs kicked off against the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football. It’s unclear what was taken from Mr. Mahomes’ residence, which was burglarized a day earlier.

The NFL and NBA both addressed the trend separately following the burglaries in Kansas City and two others in Minnesota, where Dallas Cowboys player Linval Joseph and NBA player Mike Conley Jr. had their homes robbed.

“It’s a transnational crime ring, and over the last three weeks, they’ve focused on NBA and NFL players, and it’s all over the country,” a league source told NFL.com last month.

Heist crews can spend hours or even days on stakeouts while picking out a home.

Police in Abingdon Township, an upscale Philadelphia suburb, warned residents this month about thieves sending a fake pizza delivery boy or a “well-dressed female” to knock on the door and see if anyone’s home.

Once a house is confirmed to be empty, they’ll give the green light to a 2-4-man burglary crew waiting nearby.

The well-heeled valleys of Southern California appear to be a favorite target of the burglars.

Authorities in Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles, suspect that 175 residential burglaries between 2019-23 are linked to thieves who arrive stateside on the temporary visas.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told CNN the thieves will sometimes wear “ghillie suits so they remain camouflaged” while staking out or sneaking up on homes.

Back in Maryland, Montgomery County Police Captain Marc Erme said the thieves don’t use any hi-tech gear for their Potomac break-ins, but they’re diligent about avoiding the little mistakes a petty crook often makes.

He said the crews wear gloves and seem to be careful about avoiding cuts on the windows they break to avoid leaving any trace of DNA at the crime scene. The various crime groups who come to Potomac also make sure to skip town quickly to evade law enforcement.

But the burglars’ lack of familiarity with the area lends them to leaving behind digital evidence that can justify criminal charges, such as a suspect who was nabbed in a Spring 2023 burglary.

“What we found was they literally, in their phone, typed ‘wealthiest neighborhoods on the East Coast,’ Capt. Erme, who runs MCPD’s Criminal Investigations Division, told The Times. “Obviously Potomac came up, and then they started looking.”

Capt. Erme said thieves are savvy enough to know most people with home security systems don’t have sensors or cameras monitoring the upper level of their house.

The business owner who lives in Potomac said the thief was able to make off with her designer bags because she didn’t have her second-floor windows wired to her burglar alarm.

She said the thief also was familiar enough with her house — which is on a large, gated, multi-acre piece of land — to place the ladder in a blindspot in her backyard.

“This person obviously was scoping out my property and knew the camera angles,” she said.

The business owner and the other Potomac resident whose home was burglarized said they believed a neighborhood landscaping company was in on the take and police should’ve investigated the work crews.

Capt. Erme said the thieves aren’t around long enough to recruit local accomplices, but the residents said they switched landscaping companies following the break-ins just in case.

Some thieves have started businesses to facilitate their burglary enterprises.

Federal prosecutors charged Juan Carlos Thola-Duran, 57, for using his California rental car company to provide criminals with vehicles so they could raid homes around the country.

Mr. Thola-Duran also instructed the thieves to max out any stolen credit cards on big electronics or luxury goods before they could be frozen, according to prosecutors.

The suspect allegedly made over $5 million while running the scheme from 2018 until his arrest in July. Five others were charged in the years-long theft ring.

“Crime tourism is a major problem impacting not just Southern California, but our entire nation,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in August. “These defendants facilitated and directed crime tourists who committed hundreds of robberies across the country — in essence, they acted as quarterbacks for a team of thieves.”

But Capt. Erme in Montgomery County said many arrests in the high-end burglaries come down to good fortune.

He said a suspect in a Potomac home invasion from fall 2023 was nabbed this October after border agents caught him trying to cross back into Mexico. The suspect was wanted in Cincinnati and Montgomery County, and had a burglary-related arrest in Connecticut as well.

“That was luck that he was stopped that day at the border, and they identified he had a warrant,” Capt. Erme said. “He could have made it back into Mexico, and we may not have ever seen him again.”

Still, Capt. Erme sympathizes with victims who want police to crack down on the burglaries that have shattered the sense of safety they once had in their homes.  

The business owner in Potomac acknowledged that the robberies are a “champagne problem.” But the break-in rattled her so much she said she hired private security for a time, and only recently started feeling normal again.

“It took, like, a good four to five months for me to feel somewhat safe at night while home alone, which is the worst part,” she said. “Your home should be a safe space.”

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.