David Ospina burgled: Thieves raid Arsenal star's home and take £100k Mercedes for joyride

Raid: Arsenal star Ospina and wife Jesica Sterling
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Arsenal star David Ospina’s £16million home was raided by thieves who stole the keys to his luxury sportscar as his wife and young children slept upstairs.

The two men sped off with the goalkeeper’s £100,000 Mercedes from the driveway and took it on a joyride across north London.

Colombia international Ospina, 27, was out of the country having played a World Cup qualifier in his home nation against Peru the evening before.

Terror: The house was raided as Jesica Sterling and the children slept upstairs

The sinister burglary is the latest in a spate of high-value car thefts in exclusive Hampstead Garden Suburb which is home to a number of Premier League stars, including Opsina’s team-mate Olivier Giroud.

The Standard reported how residents have called in private security firms to patrol the streets after 30 Range Rovers were taken in just 10 days at the end of August.

Ospina’s wife Jesica Sterling today told of her shock after she woke to find a kitchen window wide open, a tap running and the keys missing from a bowl by the front door.

"Jesica feels scared because she lives here with the babies"

&#13; <p>Mrs Sterling’s cousin Katheryne Gomez</p>&#13;

The keys to the couple’s eight-bed neo-Georgian house - which boasts a swimming pool, sauna room, Jacuzzi and cinema - had also been swiped.

Two suspects were captured on CCTV speeding away in the £100,000 white Mercedes AMG. It was found abandoned seven miles away in Wembley Park later in the day after a police search.

Ms Sterling, a model, told the Standard the break-in had left her fearing for the safety of her two children, aged eight months and five.

The star's house keys were also taken

She said: “It’s difficult at night. We think that everything was planned because they came to the house through the window and took about 10 minutes maximum and left with the keys.

“It was strange they didn’t look for anything else – just took the keys and went.”

Mrs Sterling’s cousin Katheryne Gomez, 22, and her husband had also been staying at the house on the night of the attack.

The raiders are thought to have slipped undetected into the garden through a side door and climbed into the house through the kitchen window.

Mrs Gomez said: “We were upstairs asleep then in the morning when Jesica came down she looked at the kitchen window and saw it was open. She was surprised and scared.

“Jesica came upstairs to wake us and when we came down we saw the car was missing.

“We called the police and they came and looked at everything. About two hours after they left they called saying they’d found the car. We had all the locks changed on the house the same day.

“We feel better now but in the night Jesica feels scared because she lives here with the babies and it’s the first time they’ve had this situation.

“We think they had been looking at the house in the days before. It was two guys. It’s happening a lot. It’s a horrible thing.”

Although the car has been recovered, it has not yet been handed back to the family as investigations continue.

Ospina, who joined Arsenal in 2014 and was part of the Colombian squad that reached the quarter-finals at the Brazil World Cup, has since returned home where he is recovering from a shoulder injury.

A Met spokesman said officers were investigating the burglary that took place between 11pm on October 9 and 8am the following morning.

He added: “Keys to a car were stolen and the vehicle subsequently taken. The car was later recovered in the Wembley Park area. No arrests have been made at this time and enquiries continue.”

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