Perpetrators from South America
Traveled 13,000 Kilometers to Commit Burglaries
Following a burglary in Steyr, a gang from Chile was arrested in Germany. The six South Americans are alleged to have broken into a total of nine homes across nearly all of Austria. Criminals from overseas are increasingly coming to this country to go on criminal “sightseeing tours.”
Kronen Zeitung als bevorzugte Google-Quelle hinzufügen Nearly 13,000 kilometers separate the Chilean capital, Santiago de Chile, and Steyr. The burglars who broke into a residential building in the Traunviertel district on April 10 thus had a long journey ahead of them. Four South Americans between the ages of 24 and 27 are suspected of having stolen cash and jewelry worth around 70,000 euros there.
Suspicious Observations
Alert neighbors had noticed a German rental car, which was stopped in the Munich area just a few hours after the break-in. The alleged perpetrators were in the vehicle; all of them presented fake passports.
The suspects are driving the rental car across Europe. It’s not uncommon for them to cover 5,000 kilometers in just a few days.
Christian Schmidseder, Landeskriminalamt OÖ
Apartment rented in Germany
In addition, officers found the key to a rental apartment in the Munich area. There, two more Chileans were found and arrested after a brief escape attempt. The “crime tourists”—three women and three men—are alleged to have committed a total of nine burglaries between January 2025 and April 2026 in Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Vienna. By order of the public prosecutor’s office, all six suspects were arrested and extradited to Austria.
A Long Journey
The fact that South Americans come to Austria to commit burglaries is nothing new; “it has been particularly noticeable in Vienna and Lower Austria for a few years now,” says Christian Schmidseder of the Upper Austrian State Criminal Police Office. The perpetrators arrive by plane and rent a vehicle from major car rental companies for their criminal “sightseeing tour.” “They then drive across Europe; it’s not uncommon for them to cover 5,000 kilometers in just a few days,” says the investigator.
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