'They are fast': Brazen burglars targeting high-end homes on the Main Line

LOWER MERION TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Police in Lower Merion Township are investigating several residential burglaries that town officials say have occurred since late March.

Scott Zelov, a commissioner in the township, said he and other commissioners recently heard from police about the burglaries. He said police believe they know who is responsible for the four cases.

"Law enforcement calls them the South American theft group," Zelov told Action News.

Zelov said this group has been involved in about a dozen burglaries in the township over the past 18 months.

He said since late March, they have hit four homes: two in Villanova -- on Cedar Lane and Pinewood Road -- one in Bryn Mawr on John Barry Drive, and one in Gladwyne on Williamson Road.

"They want jewelry, and they are fast. They get in, they get out," Zelov said. "These are burglary rings, who primarily enter the rear of the home, and they try the second floor where there are less likely to be alarmed locations."

READ MORE: Lower Merion police catch home burglary in progress in Bryn Mawr; 1 suspect arrested

Last December, police arrested a man they say tried to burglarize a home in Bryn Mawr. Police believed he and the other suspects in the case were part of the same South American theft group targeting high-end homes in the area and across the country.

On Thursday, Action News spoke with one of the homeowners who was recently targeted.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she and her family were away when the burglary happened. She said when her mother went to check on her home and found glass all over the first floor, she called police.

"They came over, walked through the house and determined that it was this group from South America," the woman said. "Looking for a safe, cash, jewelry, designer handbags, those sorts of things."

She said the thieves were able to get through the home by smashing a glass door in the back. She also said they tried to sneak by the outdoor cameras.

"They went up through our pachysandra on the property line. [It] leads me to believe that they knew where the cameras were on our house and how to hopefully avoid them."

When they got inside her home, the woman said the thieves set off the cameras in her children's rooms. She said the thieves unplugged those cameras and all of the motion lights in the house. Then, they ransacked her bedroom.

"They just went to our bedroom, went through our dresser. They didn't take any electronics. Anything they can track, they don't want."

The woman said when the thieves couldn't find what they wanted in the 10 minutes they were inside, they left the home with a pillowcase.

"It is scary. Your home is your safe place and you want to think that nobody is going to be in there," she said.

Lower Merion Township police are working with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office as the investigation into these burglaries continues.