Andrei Kirilenko's Utah Home Burglarized: Latest Details and More
Brooklyn Nets forward Andrei Kirilenko's Utah home was robbed over the weekend, although nothing too valuable was taken.
Kirilenko, who played with the Utah Jazz from 2001 to 2011, spends much of his time in New York with his wife, Masha Lopatova, but the two still own a house in Salt Lake City, where they plan to return full-time once the former All-Star retires from the NBA.
According to Lopatova, via the Deseret News' Pat Reavy, the couple is currently in New York but were notified by a friend that their garage doors were open. When the friend checked out the inside of the house, items appeared to be missing. Lopatova, who said the burglars passed up valuable works of art and didn't get any of Kirilenko's memorabilia, wasn't overly upset about the lost goods.
"It was time for a cleanup anyway. They kind of helped us," she said. "It's definitely not a very pleasant thing when someone does this without permission. They should have asked. We would have given it to them."
She was more shocked considering the location of the crime:
"Utah has a reputation of being the safest place on Earth, and you never think something like this can happen in Utah. We never locked the doors in 10 years (when we lived there) and nothing ever has been stolen. The time we locked the doors and we weren't home, someone breaks in.
It can happen everywhere, even in safest place on Earth," she said. "Truly (Utah) is the safest place on Earth.
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Lopatova added that the burglars may have known whose house they were robbing, as well as the fact she and Kirilenko were out of town, as a result of word of mouth from people who talk to their friends.
It's an unfortunate situation, and it comes just a few weeks after fellow NBA star Ray Allen had his house broken into while his wife was home, but it's good that Kirilenko and his wife are apparently taking everything in stride.
Kirilenko likely has other things to focus on, as the Nets began the preseason in a little less than a month with a contest against reigning Euroleague champion Maccabi Tel Aviv.
