Masked Robbers Threaten Pregnant Wife in UK Crypto Home Attack

“He’s got a pillow over her face. He’s literally suffocating her on the sofa. I can hear her screaming, ‘I can’t breathe,'” James stated.

Nonetheless, James ignored the attacker’s true objective until they asked for his phone, as a fourth remote attacker directed the criminals on site to go through his apps to detect if he had any wallets installed.

“I can hear the guy on FaceTime saying: ‘Show me everything on his phone. Show me what apps he’s got,'” James remembered.

As criminals found a crypto wallet with a significant but undisclosed amount of funds, the attack escalated. “He was basically saying: Look, if you don’t send us this money now, we’re going to stab your wife in the stomach and kill your baby. We’re going to kill your wife,'” James explained.

James delivered hundreds of thousands of pounds to the attackers, and he heard the criminal on the phone say on-site attackers could take only ten grand, while the remote ringleader would keep the rest for himself.

The attack follows a rise in these “wrench attacks,” where criminals target a known cryptocurrency holder and use physical violence and coercion to steal the funds owned by the victim. Even industry figureheads, like Binance Frace President David Prinçay and Ledger co-founder David Balland have been targeted with this kind of attack.

Last month, Jonathan Meléndez, part of the Mexican rock band Camilo Séptimo, and his pregnant wife were killed in an attack where the victim’s acquaintances were seeking a hardware wallet allegedly containing $1.5 million worth of bitcoin.