Crypto Worker's Children Held Hostage in Latest French ‘Wrench Attack,’ $46,000 Taken

In brief

• Four masked men broke into a house in Vendin-le-Vieil at around 4am on Sunday and bound a couple and their two children with tape.
• The father, a salaried IT worker in the crypto sector, was taken to a separate room and forced to hand over his access codes.
• Some €40,000, about $46,000, was taken. All four suspects are still at large.

Four men broke into a family home in the northern French town of Vendin-le-Vieil in the early hours of Sunday, held a couple and their two children, and forced the father to transfer €40,000 in crypto, BFMTV reported.

The four were hooded, according to the Béthune prosecutor's office, and entered at around 4a. They bound the family with black tape and stayed more than three hours, a police source told France Télévisions.

The children are eight and twelve. The father, 40, works as a salaried IT specialist in the digital currency sector, according to the Béthune prosecutor's office, which has opened an investigation into unlawful detention and extortion.

The men searched the house, then separated the father and assaulted him, making him "communicate his identification information and codes," a police source told France Télévisions. His twelve-year-old daughter was struck in the face with car keys, according to a source close to the investigation. They left with about €40,000 ($46,000), driving away before the family worked itself free. Firefighters reached the house at 7am.