While some of the English Premier League stars are out there defending goals or scoring goals, this man James Birch just know where to strike his game of the century. He scores more than goal by burglaring the homes of some EPL stars.
His modus operandi is simple. He knows the addresses of the stars and just need to mark the match days and he will strike as he knew that they won’t be home for another few hours.
Read all about it here.
THIS burglar knew exactly where he could score his biggest hauls - at the homes of Premiership football stars.
Better yet, he knew exactly when to strike - when they were all out playing matches.
On Wednesday, James Birch was jailed for 2 1/2 years for plundering the homes of six star English Premier League footballers - Liverpool’s Jerzy Dudek, Peter Crouch, Daniel Agger and on-loan Florent Sinama-Pongolle, and Everton’s Tony Hibbert and Andy Van der Meyde.
Birch, 20, claimed in a Liverpool Crown Court that he did not set out to target the homes of star footballers.
He insisted that it was only after he had broken into his first star victim’s house - Dudek’s - that he realised who the premises belonged to, reported the Daily Mail newspaper.
Birch smashed through the patio door of the Liverpool goalkeeper’s home on 19 Jun and stole sporting memorabilia, jewellery and a Porsche car.
Dudek, who was away in Poland after losing his automatic world cup place because of poor form, returned to the UK on 20 June and was devastated by the thefts.
Birch’s haul included Dudek’s Champions League winner’s medal and his World Cup finals shirt.
MATCH FIXTURES HIS GUIDE
The size and value of his haul from Dudek’s home made Birch realise that the homes of all professional footballers made for rich pickings, he told the court.And with Premiership match schedules being public knowledge, it would also be easy to work out when players were not at home.
So, for his next target, he picked Crouch’s Cheshire home, on 27 Sep. While the England striker was scoring two goals in a Champion’s League match against Galatasaray, he was losing properties back home.
Birch had stolen an Aston Martin car, football memorabilia and champagne.
He not only stole things, he also took van der Meyde’s pet puppy.
All the burglaries took place between June and October. Birch, who has previous convictions for theft, pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary, of which one related to the break-in at Dudek’s home.
Seven other burglaries, of which five of the victims were the footballers, were taken into consideration.
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