Two homejacking attempts linked to cryptocurrencies in Saint-Jean-de-Védas in April and September 2026

Lightning, twice in the same place. It is 5 a.m. this Tuesday, September 29 when the perimeter alarm screams in a property in Saint-Jean-de-Védas, near Montpellier. Three men have just climbed the fence. They immediately run away. The scene has a bitter taste of déjà vu for the couple sleeping inside. A fake armed delivery man had already forced their door in April to demand access to their cryptocurrencies. The proverb is wrong, and France now records a crypto-kidnapping or an attempt every two or three days.

Attempted homejacking in Saint-Jean-de-Védas, three suspects arrested in the process

The affair is revealed by Ouest-France, the only source at this stage on this second attempt. The trio never set foot in the house. The alarm was enough to scare them away before any confrontation with the occupants.

The police reacted quickly. A search device allowed them to intercept three men aboard a stolen car shortly after. The suspects are 19, 30 and 38 years old, and two of them are already known to the justice system according to Ouest-France. The investigation is entrusted to the Castelnau-le-Lez research brigade.

First failed crypto homejacking in April, with a fake armed deliveryman

Let's go back to April 11, 2026. A man shows up at the family's home mid-morning, disguised as a delivery man. He pulls out a handgun, gathers the parents and their two children in a room and demands access to the household's crypto wallet. According to Midi Libre, he acted guided by telephone by an accomplice who remained at a distance.

The father doesn't give up. He throws himself at the attacker and a gunshot goes off during the struggle, without hurting anyone. The man fled, before being arrested on April 14 in Marseille by gendarmes from the Montpellier research section. This 25-year-old suspect was then placed in pre-trial detention, according to Cointelegraph. And the voice on the other end of the line? There is no public indication that she has been identified.

Be careful on one point. No link between the two expeditions has been officially established at this stage. Marseille, however, comes up twice in the file. The first suspect was arrested there, and the trio's car was stolen there.

Crypto-kidnappings in France, a rate that does not slow down

The National Anti-Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office (PNACO) has recorded 135 kidnappings or kidnappings linked to cryptocurrencies since 2023. There were 18 in 2024 and 67 in 2025. At the end of April, 47 cases had already been opened in the first four months of 2026, according to figures communicated to Europe 1. Leaks of customer data, like that of Ledger in 2020, deliver names and addresses of individuals on a tray. If you hold crypto, the first instinct is to never talk about it, either online or over the counter.