Police continue investigation into rash of high dollar burglaries in Fairfax County

McLEAN, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Fairfax County Police are putting another call out to the public to help in their investigation of a rash of high dollar burglaries. Police say the thieves are after expensive and sentimental items, like gold jewelry.

There have now been almost two dozen homes throughout the county that have been hit in recent months and police say the brazen thieves are targeting people of Indian, Asian or Middle Eastern descent.

FOX 5 spoke to one family Friday who says they are completely heartbroken because all of their family heirlooms passed down for generations are gone.

So far, police say 23 homes in some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Fairfax, McLean, Great Falls and Oakton have been burglarized in just the last few months -- most of them occurring at the end of 2018.

Each time, police say the burglars break into the upscale homes through a backdoor in the afternoon and evening when the homeowners are not home. The thieves then make off with high-priced items, such as gold jewelry, gold coins, designer handbags and cash.

In one case, the thieves got away with a large safe and hundreds of thousands of gold heirloom jewelry inside a home in Great Falls.

Detectives believe the burglaries are the work of a group of professionals that mainly target homes belonging to people of Asian, Indian or Middle Eastern descent.

"We estimate approximately one million dollars have been taken from our victims to date. They tend to act with such precision to not bring attention to themselves while conducting these operations," said 2nd Lt. John Lieb with the Fairfax County Police.

Detectives have also noted several of the victims are business owners that occasionally have a large amount of cash on hand and keep high dollar items in their homes.

Police are urging residents in these communities to keep their doors locked, their homes well lit and to report any suspicious activity in the neighborhood to police.

If you have information into these burglaries, contact the Fairfax County Police. You could receive a reward if your information leads to an arrest.