The Bizarre Story Of The Player Who Was Robbed While Playing The Super Bowl
There are a couple of ways of looking at it. One is that some people will try to walk off with anything that isn't nailed down, especially if they can sell or trade it later. Then there are those thieves who take advantage of a situation — as Today reports, burglars often target the homes of families attending funerals. (Yes, really.) These kinds of crimes are rarely quite as glamorous as, say, an Ocean's However Many movie. (Nor as entertaining, for that matter.)
And then there are those crimes that are just sort of insult-to-injury. The guy who gets fired, and carries his stuff to his car, only to find out his car's been stolen. That kind of thing.
You might think that if you're a justifiably famous and extremely well-compensated (justifiably or not) sports figure, you might escape those kinds of slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Not so. Not if you're Rob Gronkowski, living in Massachusetts, back when he was playing for the New England Patriots.
In 2018, as CBS Sports tells us, Gronk was with his teammates, taking on the Philadelphia Eagles in Minneapolis for Super Bowl LII. Alas, the tight end and the rest of the crew were doomed to disappointment — despite quarterback Tom Brady's best efforts, the game was a loss for the Patriots, with the Eagles earning 41 points against the Patriots' 33, says ESPN.
Burglars left his stuff alone; his roommates, not so much
Now comes the "insult to injury" part. It seems that while Gronkowski et al were losing in Minnesota, some enterprising thieves broke into the house he shared with two other men, reports the Boston Globe. While Gronkowski's bedroom was locked and secured, the roomies didn't fare quite so well. Stolen items included handguns, jewelry, and personal identity documentation.
A later Boston Globe report notes that Gronkowski had left on January 29 for the February 4 game. His housemates left February 1, and although they secured windows and doors before leaving the residence, they later realized they'd neglected to arm the house's security system. There were, however, security cameras and footage that was later used to apprehend the perpetrators. All three were eventually arrested, according to NBC Sports. It wasn't even clear that the thieves knew whose house they burgled.
Even though Gronkowski didn't lose any personal items, the house itself suffered a basement door that was forced open, as well as a broken basement window. Even so, it no doubt ranks in Gronk's diary as probably not the best week ever.