Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s affluent California neighbourhood has been rocked by a spate of crimes, according to loal reports. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex live in a lavish mansion in Montecito, California, where they have settled with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet after they stepped down as senior working royals in 2020.
But their quiet life in the Santa Barbara town has recently been rocked by a series of burglaries and thefts, which sparked concern among residents. According to the Montecito Journal, a group of burglars ransacked a resident’s garage while they were on a trip.
The suspects appeared to have entered through the second-floor patio by breaking the glass door and exiting through the same entry point.
Another group of residents reported that the back door glass window of their home had been broken while they were on a trip. Police acknowledged that “someone had clearly gone through their things”, however, nothing appeared to have been taken.
Meanwhile, officers spotted an unoccupied SUV parked and with an expired number plate and false tabs.
The police also found a meth pipe and a beer can inside the vehicle but while they found two people who claimed they were nor the driver or the owner of the car, they could, they could not determin its ownership and towed it.
Elsewhere, an owner of a business claimed a woman entered their shop and stole sunglasses, with the police looking for the suspect.
It comes as the residents of Montecito were urged by authorities earlier this year to take extra precautions to protect their homes, following a proliferation of criminal gangs from South America.
Montecito is favoured by a number of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Special Crime Division Detective Anthony Nunez laid out the scale of the problem during a crime presentation at the February 2025 meeting of the Montecito Association.
He said that the gangs, coming from countries including Chile and Venezuela, generally consisted of three or four men and women working in coordination to carry out premeditated burglaries.
He added: “They conduct surveillance prior to the robbery to figure out your pattern of being at home and being away. [Then] they place cameras on the properties they are targeting.
“They are highly skilled and are in and out in three minutes, targeting primary bedrooms’ safe boxes and jewellery. They use signal jammers to stop your alarms, cell phones and home video surveillance [and] sell the stolen items back in their country of origin.”
