Burglars in US target homes of Asian immigrants while they are at work

Burglary rings have popped up across the country, targeting Asian business owners

- Amy Qin

One night in August, Mr Chong Man Kim and his wife, Ms Byung Sook, arrived home after a long day working at their grocery store to find that their house in Eugene, Oregon, had been ransacked.

Nearly every drawer had been emptied. The pockets of many of their clothes had been turned inside out. A safe hidden deep upstairs had been prised open. Another safe had disappeared altogether.

Gone were their life savings. Their wedding rings. Family heirlooms. Even the Eisenhower dollars that Mr Kim had collected over the years.

Only pennies were left behind.

"Fifty years of saving money, 50 years of dreams," Mr Kim, 69, said in a recent interview. "I just wanted a better life for my kids, and now for what?"

The police told him that they believed the robbery was among the first in a wave of burglaries targeting Asian households in the area.

Around the country, burglary rings have been targeting Asian business owners - many of them immigrants - in what police say are highly organised and technically sophisticated operations.

While most victims have not lost their life’s savings, the burglaries have resulted in the cumulative loss of millions of dollars and left these business owners and their families feeling vulnerable and afraid.

In just the past year, police have reported such rings in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Oregon.

Police officials say that many suspects are from South America, and are, in particular, Colombian nationals who have expired visas or are living in the country illegally.

It is not known whether Asian business owners are more likely than other groups to keep large amounts of money at home. But the presumption that they do, police say, has made them targets.

There are other factors, too. Linguistic and cultural barriers can make Asian immigrants more hesitant to report crimes, the police say.