As Joe Burrow led the Cincinnati Bengals to a 27-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys last December a group allegedly robbed the quarterback’s home during a cross-country crime spree that targeted at least six high-profile athletes.

The thefts highlight the unique vulnerabilities faced by famous athletes whose salaries and work schedules are accessible on the internet in seconds, as well as the mix of careful planning and brazen tactics used by criminals to elude security measures.

Burrow’s security detail was posted in his front driveway while he was in Texas but the burglars entered from the rear of the property, making off with about $300,000 in designer luggage, glasses, watches and jewellery, according to a court document.

In a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Florida allege that a group of seven Chilean men stole items worth millions of dollars from the homes of at least four NFL and two NBA players during break-ins last year.

In October the houses of the Kansas City Chiefs’ biggest stars, Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes, were robbed of valuables including watches, cash and jewelry. Mahomes was burgled two days before the Chiefs hosted the New Orleans Saints on 7 October, while $20,000 in cash was stolen from Kelce’s home on the day of the game.

Later that month an unnamed Tampa Bay Buccaneers player had $167,000 worth of goods taken while the Buccaneers played the Baltimore Ravens, according to the FBI, including a Louis Vuitton suitcase, Rolex watches and a gun. The alleged thieves have also been linked to items valued at $1m stolen from two-time NBA All-Star Ja Morant during a game and $1.5m worth of goods taken from the home of a Milwaukee Bucks player, Bobby Portis Jr, around tip-off time as the Bucks faced the Cleveland Cavaliers on 2 November.

Last November the NFL issued an alert to warn team security directors and the players’ union about the threat. The league said in an article that the perpetrators conducted “extensive surveillance”, tracked team schedules and the social media accounts of players and their families, broke in to empty properties and focused on items in master bedrooms and closets. It urged players to install security systems, hide valuables and avoid posting in real time on social media.

The NBA and FBI also disseminated warnings. “Organized theft groups bypass alarm systems, use wifi jammers to block wifi connections and disable devices, cover security cameras, and obfuscate their identities,” the agency cautioned. “These homes are targeted for burglary due to the perception they may have high-end goods like designer handbags, jewellery, watches, and cash.”

The FBI complaint alleges that the modus operandi of the Chilean group was to approach residences from cover such as wooded or dark areas and force entry through a window or door. It claims that to cover their tracks they switched mobile phones or sim cards every month or so and used fake identification to rent a car.

But this seemingly painstaking preparation may have been undermined by hubristic celebrations: a photograph obtained by prosecutors appears to show some of the suspects gleefully posing with Portis’ stolen safe and watches. In the complaint an FBI agent writes that they believe the men “were bragging to co-conspirators about their recent burglary” of Portis. “It’s crazy that the picture is on there. Like – I’m not going to say anything about that. It works me up, man,” Portis told reporters.

Other crimes not linked to the group in the indictment have occurred recently. The Los Angeles home of the LAFC striker Olivier Giroud was reportedly targeted earlier this month by burglars who entered through a smashed window while the player and his family were out and took valuables worth $500,000. Three Stanley Cup rings were said to have been stolen from Evgeni Malkin’s house in suburban Pittsburgh last month as the P Penguins hosted the Ottawa Senators. The home of the NBA superstar Luka Dončić, then with the Dallas Mavericks, was burgled in December.

In a tragic incident, Sean Taylor, a star for Washington’s NFL team, was fatally shot at his Florida home in 2007 in a confrontation during a botched robbery. Five men were charged in the incident; one told police that they thought the 24-year-old would be away with the team, who were playing against Tampa Bay. But Taylor was sidelined with a knee injury.

Thefts are also a serious problem for footballers in Europe. Raheem Stirling left the England squad during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after a break-in at his home in Surrey, while Angel Di María was substituted during a Paris Saint-Germain match in 2021 after it emerged that his home had been robbed while his family were present. The forward Karim Benzema was repeatedly burgled while playing for Real Madrid. Medals were stolen from the home of Chelsea’s Reece James while he was playing in a Champions League game in 2021 by robbers, he said, who “managed to collectively lift a heavy safe containing some personal items of mine into their car”.

The Manchester City players Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne were also targeted. “The people that commit these terrible crimes have no idea of the damage they cause to peoples’ lives,” Grealish wrote on social media, adding he was “devastated” by the “traumatic experience” his family endured in December 2023, during which £1m-worth of jewellery and watches were reportedly stolen while they were watching City play Everton, prompting his partner to press a panic button. In 2021, when on City’s books, the Portuguese defender João Cancelo suffered facial injuries during a home invasion. The former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli was punched and robbed at knifepoint at his north London home in 2020.

“They have security. But unfortunately it’s happened, it’s happened many times,” City manager Pep Guardiola told reporters. “Today you have to be careful, definitely. Not much on social media, the less they know what you are doing the better. People are waiting. Waiting to see where you are.”

It is typically easy to discover the addresses of celebrities in the US, with property ownership generally a matter of public record. And unlike, say, business executives who may have comparable fortunes but enjoy relative anonymity, players are household names. While teams and leagues look after security in stadiums and training centres, players and agents should pay close attention to private arrangements, says Jim Hayes, a sports security expert who is VP, Sports Entertainment and Government Affairs for Guidepost Solutions, an investigations and consultancy firm.

“Many of the directors of security for teams that I’m in touch with are working with players, working with player agents, not necessarily as a function of a team responsibility but a moral responsibility to want to make sure that the players are well-protected, well-informed, they have the information they need and they’re taking the steps to protect themselves,” he says.

It is not only a matter of personal safety: “If that player is more concerned about having a house that’s unsafe or property that’s not defended, there’s a good chance that can affect their overall performance.”

Burrow told reporters that the theft and subsequent attention took a mental toll. “I feel like my privacy has been violated in more ways than one, and way more is out there than I would want out there and that I care to share,” he said. “We live a public life and one of my least favourite parts of that is the lack of privacy, and that has been difficult to deal with my entire career. I’m still learning, but I understand it’s the life that we choose. It doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.”

Strategies to counteract the kind of tactics allegedly used in the recent US burglaries could include installing firmly embedded safes and advanced security perimeters. “Cameras, motion detection, there’s AI technology now that can differentiate between what is an expected movement around the property or in any area and what is a movement that would be associated with some type of unlawful behaviour,” Hayes says.

“There are ways to design a complete security plan for all properties, for all assets, even extending to the digital footprint an athlete leaves … Sometimes that means maybe not posting on social media six times a day. That’s really difficult in this state that we’re in, because part of the athlete’s popularity – and certainly when you talk about colleges with [profit potential from] the name, image and likeness – part of their ability to get paid is their popularity and so they want to be interacting with the fanbase,” he adds. “Athletes are learning the hard way that those are things they have to consider.”