Aussie influencers and reality stars robbed of millions in shocking crime spree
Several online personalities have been targeted.
A growing number of Australia’s most high-profile influencers and reality stars are being targeted in a string of shocking home invasions and attacks after sharing their lavish lifestyles on social media.
More and more big names have been targeted over the last year, with the online personalities collectively losing millions of dollars worth of jewellery, cars and personal items.
Jade Kevin Foster, who has 1.2 million Instagram followers and starred on Netflix’s Byron Baes, tells Yahoo Lifestyle he refuses to tag his real-time location anymore after being targeted multiple times.
“It’s not a safe idea at all to be flaunting any expensive items on Instagram as [not all of the people following you] have the best intentions and the world isn’t safe anymore,” he said after his brand new $154,000 BMW, which he’d boasted about online, was stolen last year.
“I was also once followed home from a nightclub that I’d been promoting [by posting where I was currently at] by three men and my diamond engagement ring was stolen from me,” Jade added, explaining how that incident left him “scared, constantly anxious and looking over my shoulder”.
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In recent weeks, three Married At First Sight stars who now work as influencers and online content creators have all been victims of burglaries in Queensland.
Ryan Gallagher and his fiancée, Olympic swimmer Emily Seebohm, had their Brisbane home broken into in June - with thieves forcing their way into their garage and taking a wallet and credit card that had been left in a car.
“All of the keys were inside [the house], so luckily they couldn’t steal any of the cars,” Emily said on TikTok. “It was very scary waking up to that on a Sunday morning.”
Similarly, former MAFS brides Samantha Moitzi and Tamara Djordjevic were “left traumatised” last month after being woken by a call from the police and walking downstairs to find their front door wide open and both of their cars missing.
“I have no idea how this happened because it seems insanely impossible for them to sneak into my house and get away with this,” Tamara said on Instagram, adding they felt “lucky” they weren’t harmed during the incident.
'Targeted attack'
In January, 24-year-old Gold Coast-based influencer Eli Dangerfield claimed to have been robbed, beaten, stripped and sexually assaulted in a wild gunpoint kidnapping. The Courier Mail reported at the time it was believed to be a “targeted attack”.
Eli, who previously boasted on TikTok about making over $300,000 with an e-commerce business and regularly shared pictures of his luxury cars, has since wiped his social media pages and gone “offline” indefinitely.
Jade Ebony Morris, a Cairns-based influencer who shares her life with her 142,000 TikTok followers, has now been targeted four times.
“They've literally gone through everything. This is the last thing that I f**king need,” she said on TikTok while filming herself arriving home to find her house ransacked.
“They've pulled out my entire wardrobe, unwrapped Christmas presents and completely f**ked the latch on my back door.”
Forced to move
Last month, Queensland influencer Chloe Szepanowski was called out by fans for sharing a “dangerous” video tour of her new home.
The fan reaction came after the social media star revealed last year that she had to sell her previous $2.75 million home as she was too “traumatised” to return after a shocking break-in.
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During the invasion, the intruder “tried to run her partner over multiple times” as he attempted to steal her car. This was the third time the couple had their home broken into in 2022, but said this particular one was “really traumatic for the entire family”.
“We definitely learnt the value of our safety that night. Especially having children in the house ... our privacy is one of our highest values now,” Chloe penned last year, after taking a break from social media for a while as she “didn’t feel safe to share what was going on”.
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