Anthony Almeida exited his Dodge Ram just after 8 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2018, Super Bowl Sunday, around the time the Philadelphia Eagles took a 10-point lead over the New England Patriots into halftime.
Security cameras recording at the Stop and Shop grocery store in Foxboro, Mass., captured Almeida picking out several items. He paid with cash but entered his phone number into a credit card terminal to activate the store’s rewards program. That was intentional; he wanted to establish an alibi.
A few hundred yards away, a figure in dark clothing approached a home he had good reason to believe would be vacant: a five-bedroom house that years earlier was described as “bigger than a McMansion, smaller than an actual mansion,” in a 2015 Sports Illustrated profile of its owner, Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Earlier this month, the FBI announced an investigation into a string of recent burglaries at the homes of professional athletes — including NFL stars Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Joe Burrow — orchestrated by what investigators are calling South American Theft Groups (SATG). Federal prosecutors charged seven Chilean men for their alleged roles in the burglaries, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
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Seven men charged for alleged roles in burglaries targeting athletes’ homes
The FBI’s Feb. 7 announcement contended that “athletes may have been targeted due to their publicly available schedules, making their properties more vulnerable.” The NFL and NBA sent security warnings to teams in November, with the NBA’s memo describing the theft groups as “well-organized, sophisticated rings that incorporate advanced techniques and technologies, including pre-surveillance, drones, and signal jamming devices.”
The burglary at Gronkowski’s home, orchestrated by then 26-year-old Shane Denn and longtime friend Almeida, then 31, lacked that kind of sophistication. Seven years later, Almeida, who said he didn’t know about the plan until the night of the crime, admits parts were “kind of stupid.” And almost everything was caught on video.
According to Almeida, who ran a construction business at the time, he wouldn’t have been there if not for a different kind of robbery attempt on a Dorchester street around 2003, when he was about 17 and Denn was around 12.
“He was getting bullied for … I think it was a Nintendo 64, and I stepped in,” Almeida recalled. “From that day on, I guess we became friends. He liked me. I saved him from getting his items taken from him.”
Almeida said he would do almost anything for Denn. So when his friend asked for a lift on the night of the Super Bowl in 2018, Almeida agreed. On the drive to Foxboro — Denn had gotten Gronkowski’s address from a woman he met at a party, Almeida said — Denn told him his plan to “go check something out,” according to Almeida, who said he reluctantly agreed to help.
“He needed a ride out there, and as we’re driving, he’s telling me whose house it is and that nature,” Almeida said. “At first, I didn’t want (any) involvement so I just stayed in the parking lot in my truck.
“After that, I guess I got myself involved.”
The pair made their way to the parking lot of the Stop and Shop, which bordered Gronkowski’s neighborhood. A security camera captured Almeida’s truck backing into a spot along the wood line close to Gronkowski’s neighbor’s house. The NFL star’s house was approximately 120 yards away from the parking lot — the length of a football field, including the end zones.
A neighbor’s video surveillance system recorded Denn and Almeida running alongside Gronkowski’s fence. Around 8 p.m., cameras around Gronkowski’s house and a guest house on the property captured Denn apparently checking out basement windows before leaving the property. The police report noted it was “highly likely” he broke a window and left to test whether the home’s security system was triggered.
Less than an hour later, surveillance cameras caught Denn inside Gronkowski’s home, at one point breaking into a locked bedroom, and later walking toward the basement window while holding a safe and a bag.
Video footage indicated Almeida’s truck left the parking spot at the Stop and Shop and returned to the area multiple times that night. Almeida said he was “about to leave (Denn’s) ass.” But he stayed, and Denn eventually returned. Almeida said he grew concerned when Denn said “something about guns.”
“I’m not a person that carries a gun or even hangs around people that carry guns,” Almeida said. “So when he mentioned something about a gun, it was a like, ‘I need to get somewhere and get you and all this sh– out of my truck.’”
After the burglary, the two men went to one of Denn’s relatives’ homes in Quincy to split up their take, then parted, Almeida said. The next day, Gronkowski and his two housemates arrived home from the Super Bowl in Minneapolis and noticed the basement door was broken.
Gronkowski, whose agent did not respond to requests for an interview, called police to report the break-in. No items of his were reported stolen. Robert Goon, one of the housemates, had the majority of items taken, including watches, jewelry, rare coins and three handguns. In all, the burglars made out with just short of $200,000 in loot from his room.
“We failed to turn the alarm on when we left,” Goon said. “But I don’t think that would have stopped these guys ’cause they had a mission. They knew what they were doing. They knew how they were getting in.”
Goon, 44, was described in the 2015 Sports Illustrated profile as a “friend and confidant (who) serves as Gronk’s contractor, dishwasher, airport chauffeur, security guard and roommate.” He moved out of the house in recent months and still remembers details gleaned from the 2018 video footage, including Denn turning on a basement light and looking directly at one of the cameras. He wasn’t wearing anything to cover his face, Goon said.
“To this day I still don’t understand what they were thinking or why he would do it,” Goon said.
According to Goon, Denn took items off Goon’s dresser and removed the safe, which was bolted to the wall inside his closet. The three stolen handguns, which Goon said were locked in safes inside a drawer in his nightstand, troubled him the most.
“They’re deadly weapons,” he said. “If they’re in the wrong hands, they can do terrible things.”
It didn’t take long for investigators to zero in on the culprits. Surveillance footage from inside and outside the homes, the Stop and Shop and, yes, even a Dunkin’ Donuts was listed among the evidence in a 2018 warrant report. A bottle of Goon’s cologne was located in the woods between the Stop and Shop and Gronkowski’s neighbor’s place. Authorities received a tip about the stolen coins — an 1879 U.S. Morgan Dollar and an 1896 U.S. Dollar — which were found at a dealer’s in Weymouth.
On March 23, 2018, authorities executed a search warrant at Almeida’s home, finding watches that had been reported among the missing items. Almeida, Denn and Eric Tyrrell, then a coworker of Almeida’s who had tried to pawn the coins, were ultimately arrested and indicted in Norfolk County Superior Court. Denn arrived at his 2018 arraignment hearing wearing a Patriots T-shirt.
Almeida pleaded guilty to one felony charge of breaking and entering, three charges of larceny over $250 and one charge of larceny from a building. He was sentenced to four years of probation.
In 2020, Denn, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, received a four- to five-year sentence in state prison followed by three years probation after his release. Tyrrell, who could not be reached for comment, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and was sentenced to two years probation. Almeida and Denn also were ordered to pay a combined $69,500 in restitution, which Goon said has not yet been paid in full.
Goon said he and his former housemates stepped up their security “by 10 times” following the 2018 incident. His advice to athletes now?
“You gotta protect yourself,” Goon said. “If you’re gonna have expensive things in your house, just make sure you have the best security.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
