Police in three west metro cities suspect a connection among three unsolved residential burglaries within a week that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry and other pricey items.

The break-ins occurred in late August, with homes hit in Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Golden Valley, according to a court filing this week in Hennepin County.

Minnetonka police said in a search warrant affidavit that they suspect a burglary in their city on Aug. 29, another in Eden Prairie on Aug. 30 and a third in Golden Valley on Aug. 31 "are associated as they occurred within days of one another, and all three had similar modus operandi."

The affidavit filed by Minnetonka police asks a judge to allow investigators to acquire from Google any Wi-Fi or global positioning data it might have that could assist in the case.

Police said their request for this specific data was based on suspicion that the thief "may have been using a smart watch before making entry" into the home he burglarized in Minnetonka, where his image was captured on a doorbell camera.

In the meantime, no arrests have been announced.

According to the affidavit:

  • On Aug. 29 at a $1.1 million home in a Minnetonka neighborhood southwest of Ridgedale shopping center, the doorbell camera recorded a male with an athletic build breaking the rear sliding-glass door to the home with a landscape brick. The burglar made a beeline to the master bedroom, stayed but a few minutes and stole jewelry and some — but not all — of the high-end handbags there.
  • On Aug. 30 at a similarly valued home in the Bearpath Golf and Country Club gated community, a burglar again broke a rear patio door with a rock sometime between 7 and 11:45 p.m. and "targeted high-end jewelry while skipping over other valuables."
  • On Aug. 31 at a $680,000 townhouse in Golden Valley just west of Theodore Wirth Regional Park, a burglar broke a rear window and stole $300,000 worth of jewelry and Chanel designer bags "while bypassing other valuable handbags."

In another home burglary in Eden Prairie on Aug. 25, a search warrant affidavit filed in early September by Eden Prairie police alleged that thieves placed an electronic tracking device on a vehicle parked at a couple's home near Hwy. 5 and Dell Road, waited until the coast was clear and stole a safe holding at least $500,000 worth of jewels and $100,000 in cash.

The theft from the couple, who are in the jewelry business, was possibly months in the making and still has investigators on the hunt for the perpetrators and the stolen items, according to police.

Information provided to investigators revealed that the thieves in that burglary bought several of the trackers and began using them on April 5, leading police to believe that planning for the break-in could have started months ago.

Minnetonka police spokesman Andrew Wittenborg said Tuesday that the Aug. 25 burglary in Eden Prairie "is not connected to the other incidents."