Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's neighbourhood in California has been reportedly rocked by a series of crimes recently. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been living in a lavish mansion in Montecito, California, for the past five years after stepping down as senior working royals and moving to the US.

But a spate of burglaries and other crimes recently has sparked concerns in the quiet neighbourhood of Santa Barbara. According to the Montecito Journal, a resident reported that a suspect, who was subsequently arrested, broke into her locked vehicle and went through her luggage. Another resident reported a suspicious-looking person "knocking on windows and looking into properties" who was later found to have robbed a different property.

Meanwhile, another resident, a construction site superintendent, reported that the property had been broken into, with a suspect stealing "approximately $3,000 worth of various construction tool".

Elsewhere, another suspect was arrested for being in possession of methamphetamine and fentanyl following a domestic violence incident.

It comes as the residents of Montecito were urged by authorities earlier this year to take extra precautions to protect their homes, following a proliferation of criminal gangs from South America.

Montecito is favoured by a number of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Special Crime Division Detective Anthony Nunez laid out the scale of the problem during a crime presentation at the February 2025 meeting of the Montecito Association.

He said that the gangs, coming from countries including Chile and Venezuela, generally consisted of three or four men and women working in coordination to carry out premeditated burglaries.

He added: "They conduct surveillance prior to the robbery to figure out your pattern of being at home and being away. [Then] they place cameras on the properties they are targeting.

"They are highly skilled and are in and out in three minutes, targeting primary bedrooms' safe boxes and jewellery. They use signal jammers to stop your alarms, cell phones and home video surveillance [and] sell the stolen items back in their country of origin."