How a Pro Athlete–Targeting Crime Ring Finally Got Caught

The 911 call came in shortly after 8 p.m. on the evening of December 9, 2024—a Monday. Olivia Ponton, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, arrived at the $7.5 million Cincinnati-area mansion of Joe Burrow, quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals. Ponton told authorities she was there to check on the place while the Bengals were in Dallas on their way to a 27-20 nationally televised victory against the hapless Cowboys on Monday Night Football. When Ponton’s ride pulled away, she let herself in and immediately noticed that the vibe was way off. The living room was in shambles. When she made her way to the southwest side of the estate, where the primary bedroom overlooks a stately bend in the Ohio River, Ponton discovered a shattered window. The place had been looted. “Somebody broke into my house…it’s completely messed up,” Ponton told the 911-dispatcher when she phoned in the burglary.

Burrow is one of professional sports’ most ostentatious dressers. A modern-day Broadway Joe. He’s cultivated the image of a quarterback who doesn’t just show up on Sundays to win games—he’s there to win the pregame fit check too. There’s a fine line between confidence and trying too hard, and Burrow straddles it with the same swagger that he brings to the pocket: rectangular Cartier shades; fur-lined parkas over a snug black turtleneck (après football!); matchy-matchy embroidered sweatshirt and jean sets; a sleeveless mesh shirt and parachute pants; and tailored suits cut from fabric reminiscent of certain hotel draperies. Each ensemble is a deliberate mix of luxury and excess, seemingly calculated for maximum virality.

Burrow’s wealth, exposure, and predictable schedule made him a target. He wasn’t the first. By the time thieves ransacked his home, NFL and NBA stars had been systematically hit for months—Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Mike Conley, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Bobby Portis, among others. The playbook was simple: wait until they were publicly on the road, then clean them out. Their schedules were online, and their wealth on display. Leagues started warning players in November 2024, advising them to install reinforced doors, upgrade alarm systems, and even get guard dogs—but the burglaries kept coming. Investigators haven’t linked every case to the same crew, but the pattern is unmistakable: rental cars, fake IDs, Airbnbs, and a direct pipeline of stolen goods flowing through New York’s Diamond District.

By the time cops arrived at Burrow’s home, the alleged burglars were long gone, their rented Volkswagen Atlas hurtling toward Florida with an estimated $300,000 worth of loot: a black bedazzled Cartier Santos and a Rolex Explorer, $10,000 in cash, diamond-encrusted chains and pendants (Sponge Bob, cannabis leaf, snowflake, uniform number), Louis Vuitton luggage, and Gucci hats, according to the FBI’s affidavit.

covered in Vanity Fair in 2022 by Marc Wortman, who noted a rash of robberies of Premier League players that prefigured the American thefts). Around that time, the phrase “South American Theft Group” and the acronym SATG began working their ways into the national law enforcement lexicon. Before that, authorities referred to the phenomenon as “crime tourism.” These rings, the authorities have said, involve informal groups of thieves, largely from South America, who enter the United States on tourist visas. Authorities have frequently noted “SATGs” for their sophistication, with the groups planting hidden cameras on victims’ properties to track when the residents leave, according to law enforcement officials in California. Some are also known to use Wi-Fi jammers to block security cameras and disable alarms.

The athlete-centric crime spree kicked off in September 2024. On September 15, while attending a Minnesota Vikings game at US Bank Stadium, Timberwolves guard Mike Conley Jr.’s home in Medina, Minnesota was looted. Thieves targeted his residence, along with two other homes in the area, all of which were unoccupied at the time. The burglars gained entry by breaking ground-floor windows and stole an undetermined amount of jewelry. On September 16, Conley’s then teammate and neighbor in Medina, Karl-Anthony Towns, was hit. Once they got inside, they allegedly took roughly $100,000 in jewelry and watches, according to The New York Times. On October 6, the Belton, Missouri home of Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes was burglarized. The next day, Travis Kelce, Mahomes’s teammate who had recently gone public as Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, became the next victim when thieves hit his Leawood, Kansas home. Kelce reportedly lost $20,000 in cash and valuables, including a watch. Two weeks later, an anonymous Tampa Bay Buccaneers player’s collection of Rolexes was stolen, along with designer suitcases, jewelry, and a hand gun, according to the Department of Justice. In early November, Milwaukee Bucks power forward Bobby Portis was robbed while playing a home game. Doorbell-cam images show the perps wearing white hazmat suits and masks. The alleged theives stole a safe, and with it, almost $1.5 million worth of loot, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Over the remaining weeks of 2024, Jaylen Brown (Celtics), Luka Dončić (then of the Dallas Mavericks), and another hoopster from the Memphis Grizzlies were all targeted.

The arrests in Ohio came amid a broader federal investigation into burglaries by South America–based crime groups at pricey homes across the United States, according to the affidavit. Investigators “have arrested at least six different South American burglary groups, five of which were Chilean nationals,” a criminal complaint read.

On February 4, 2025, FBI agents raided a New York City Diamond District pawnshop. They arrested a Georgian national named Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, 43, and another suspect, Juan Villar, 48, for allegedly running a fencing operation with SATGs—including those linked to the ring that targeted Burrow, Mahomes, and Kelce—the feds alleged in an unsealed indictment in federal court in Brooklyn. (Both men have pleaded not guilty.)

From 2022 to 2024, an undercover investigator facilitated the “controlled sale” of allegedly stolen luxury items to Nezhinskiy and Villar, according to prosecutors. Phone records and video evidence tied Nezhinskiy to at least two members of the Ohio group that allegedly ripped off Burrow. Investigators seized dozens of luxury items from the Diamond District pawnshop that prosecutors said was the two men’s illegal business. At the same time, the authorities recovered sports memorabilia, wine, artwork, and other merchandise from New Jersey storage units allegedly belonging to Nezhinskiy, according to the US Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. The recovered goods are expected to be worth as much as $5 million.

Two weeks later, the FBI announced another break in the case when it charged Caballo, Sanchez, and Morales—three of the men accused in the Burrow robbery—along with three other men in a string of robberies, which included those of Kelce and Mahomes, with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, as a federal criminal complaint unsealed in Tampa, Florida revealed. (Caballo, Sanchez, and Morales have pleaded not guilty.)

The targeting of pro-athlete homes seems to have dropped off in the months following the break-in at Burrow’s mansion. The office of the Clark County public defender in Ohio, which initially represented the suspects in that case, did not immediately return a request for comment. But many athletes have significantly enhanced their home security measures as advised by their respective leagues. Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa employed armed personal security following a car break-in, emphasizing the safety of his family. Former New York Jet Aaron Rodgers urged fellow players to utilize the league’s security resources and admitted to employing full-time security at his home after his address was publicly revealed. In a world where an Instagram post can double as a shopping list, it seems like a safe play.