A New Jersey man was sentenced to 50 months in prison for burglarizing Asian and Asian American homes across four states.
Randi Barr, 42, along with seven co-conspirators, identified Asian small-business owners by targeting heavily populated Asian communities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, according to court documents.
The group stole large sums of money, jewelry and other items, typically from the homes of restaurant owners, to sell across state lines from about December 2016 to March 2019, a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said. Victims were chosen based on who the group believed had large sums of money and valuable jewelry, according to a 2021 press release.
Barr was also ordered to pay $127,661 in restitution and forfeiture. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, court documents said. His attorney was not immediately available to comment.
Barr was arrested in 2021 with seven others during a burglary in progress, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a news release.
The group broke into victims’ cars at their place of business to find home addresses from vehicle documents and placed tracking devices in the cars; they then often entered the homes from unlocked second-floor windows, according to the press release.
A phone was found in a victim’s home in 2018 in Newark, Delaware, which appeared to have been dropped by one of the suspects, the 2021 court documents said. The phone’s records linked to a residence in New Jersey, where the suspects allegedly often operated from. Investigators later connected a car parked outside the New Jersey home to a January 2019 burglar.
“These defendants allegedly carried out a brazen conspiracy based on stereotype and opportunity,” Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. previously said. “It is fitting that these arrests come at a time when society is raising awareness regarding crimes against our Asian-American citizens.”
