Police in Plano, Texas have arrested three men suspected of burglarizing the homes of several Asian Americans.
According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, police arrested Yandre Rodriquez, Jose Torre-Rodriguez and Edwin Rivera over the weekend. They say evidence has linked the three men to burglaries in Plano and two other Texas cities.
Police also believe that the patterns in these burglaries fit that of a crime ring that targeted Asian American homes. Several North Texas cities have seen an increase in burglaries targeting Asian American households since 2013. Burglars would break into what they thought was an Asian American home and steal gold jewelry.
One alleged victim of the recent burglaries, Michael Hobbs, was not Asian American but had decorated his home with Asian art. His home was broken into in broad daylight on Friday.
“There’s a lot of oriental décor in here,” Michael Hobbs, a Plano resident told NBC 5.
Hobbs believes a decorative Chinese dragon on his porch may have caught the eye of the burglars. It is unclear, however, if the three men targeted his home.
In 2017, ABC 13 reported that authorities in Fort Bend arrested 17 Colombian men in connection with burglaries of over 100 Asian American homes. According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Plano police allege that these burglaries are linked to that group of Colombian immigrants. However, this connection has not been officially confirmed.
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