Author, Joe Tidy
Job Location, Cyber Security Correspondent, BBC World Service
Published 2 minutes ago
Reading time: 5 min
Masked men broke into a businessman's home, beat him with hammers and threatened to kill his heavily pregnant wife unless he transferred hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cryptocurrency to them. The couple spoke to the BBC about their experience on condition of anonymity. According to them, they were very afraid for the life of the unborn child.
This is a shortened and adapted translation of material from a BBC correspondent. The original in English can be read here.
Warning: Content contains shocking details.
The attack happened in December last year. was recorded by home surveillance cameras. According to the victims, it lasted about 45 minutes. Immediately after the man transferred his cryptocurrency savings to the attackers, they fled in a car driven by their accomplice.
Crimestoppers has announced a £10,000 ($13,000) reward for information about the robbery.
Experts say that violent robberies of crypto investors have become more frequent recently. As the value of cryptocurrencies rose, reports of similar robberies began to emerge from the UK, France and the US. It can be extremely difficult to return funds after they have been transferred.
James (not his real name), from Solihull, told the BBC there were three intruders who broke into his home.
“The door swung open and I saw gloved hands and people in balaclavas,” he recalls.
James tried to fight back, but the attackers began hitting him in the face, head and ribs with hammers.
His wife, who was seven months pregnant, was held on the sofa by one of the criminals.
“He put a pillow over her face,” James said. “Literally strangled her on the couch.” I heard her screaming, 'I can't breathe!'
The couple did not understand until recently what exactly the criminals wanted, until one of them demanded that James unlock the phone and give it back.
According to James, the attackers apparently knew that he had cryptocurrency, but had little idea how to access it, so they acted on the instructions of the person with whom they communicated via video link.
"I hear this guy on FaceTime saying, 'Show me everything he has on his phone. Show me what apps he has,'" James said.
When the caller discovered a crypto wallet with a significant amount of funds, the threats became extremely severe.
"He was basically saying, 'Listen, if you don't give us this money right now, we're going to stab your wife in the stomach and kill your baby. We're going to kill your wife,'" James said.
His wife, a woman in her early 30s who also preferred to remain anonymous, called the attack horrific and admitted that at one point, as James lay unconscious on the floor, she thought he had been killed.
“It was terrible,” she recalls.
At that moment, she was expecting her third child and was afraid that she might lose him due to the stress she had experienced. Fortunately, the baby survived and was born on time.
After James transferred his savings - hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cryptocurrency - to the digital wallet of a man the attackers spoke to via video, the attackers made off with several luxury Rolex watches.
Before they left, James heard a man on the phone telling his accomplices: “You can have 10 grand each, but I’ll take the rest.”
Cryptocurrency is increasingly being stolen offline
Unlike money stored in a regular bank account, cryptocurrency is often controlled directly by the owner through digital wallets or physical storage devices.
Combined with the anonymity, speed and irreversibility of transactions, this makes cryptocurrency owners attractive targets for criminals.
While the vast majority of cryptocurrency thefts occur online through hacks and scams, cryptanalysts at Chainalysis say physical targeting of cryptocurrency holders has risen sharply in recent years.
According to their research, between January and June 2026, approximately $30 million was stolen in violent robberies, already making this the worst year on record for cryptocurrency thefts. In addition, crypto thieves have begun to break into homes more often.
Quite a lot of such thefts have been recorded in the USA, Brazil and Thailand, and most of them are currently in France: this was the result of a data leak from the tax service, which apparently made it possible to identify wealthy cryptocurrency owners.
“Physical security measures that ensure the safety of traditional assets - such as bank vaults or armored vehicles - do not automatically apply to cryptocurrencies. Often, owners store their assets in conditions of relatively low security, using, for example, self-custody wallets; such systems can be hacked without overcoming any institutional barriers,” the researchers note in their report.
According to James, he started investing in cryptocurrency in 2020 and by 2023 he had earned so much that he was able to quit his day job and start trading professionally.
Now he has lost everything and plans to return to his old job.
Police have not yet identified the attackers.
The charity Crimestoppers is offering a £10,000 reward for information leading to progress in the investigation.
The organization's spokesman Alan Edwards hopes someone may have information about the three attackers, the driver waiting outside with his face uncovered, or the man who was talking on the phone.
“It’s obvious that these are serious criminals and part of some kind of organized criminal group,” he said. “People may be afraid to give us information, but we are not affiliated with the police and guarantee complete anonymity.”
“They threatened my wife and child,” he said. “People need to understand that these risks are very real.”
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