Free Republic

A suspected home invasion in Bradenton turned fatal late Thursday night after the homeowner confronted two intruders and shot one of them, the sheriff’s office said. Just after 9 p.m., deputies say two masked men were caught on the homeowner’s video surveillance entering the back of a house on the 6700 block of Hickory Hammock Circle in the River Club community. “This is the state of Florida. If you want to break into someone’s home, you should expect to be shot,” Sheriff Rick Wells said at a press conference Friday morning. The homeowner, who was inside at the time, fired...

International criminals have been targeting wealthy homes on America’s coast, but now those same thieves are moving into the heartland. Thieves from South America are making their way to the U.S., renting expensive cars to fit in with high-end neighborhoods, and then striking when homeowners are away. It’s called “crime tourism,” a type of organized crime that has been reported on America’s coasts in recent years. But more recently, these thieves are making their way to the central U.S., catching homeowners off guard and causing headaches for law enforcement. After speaking with neighbors in Carmel, Indiana, NewsNation’s Keleigh Beeson found...

Law enforcement agencies call it "crime tourism" -- groups of thieves from South America traveling to California to burglarize homes. Surveillance video released by Hillsborough police shows a burglary crew believed to be from South America targeting a luxury home. It's just one in a series of crimes involving burglars from out of the country, hitting homes in affluent communities up and down the state. Earlier this month, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office arrested a four-man crew that robbed a home in a Camarillo neighborhood. "This is crime tourism. They're coming here for the purpose of targeting neighborhoods," said Cmdr....