GUN WIELDING thugs in balaclavas broke into the home of a cybercurrency trader and forced him to transfer a fortune in bitcoin in what is reported to be the first ever UK cryptocurrency robbery.
The masked robbers burst into the home in Moulsford, Oxfordshire, tied up the man’s wife, put the couple’s baby outside in a pram and forced the man to give them his bitcoin.
It is reported that schoolchildren were locked inside as a police helicopter looked for suspects and quizzed local residents.
A woman said: "I saw four young men in black tracksuits with the hoods pulled up, crossing the road to the property where it took place.’
She added: ‘They were aged 18 to 25, dark-skinned and super-fit. They jumped over the fence on the other side of the road. I didn’t see any gun, but that’s what people locally are saying – and that the men wore balaclavas which I didn’t see either, just the hoodies pulled up."
The value of bitcoin is currently valued at £8,000 a coin.
Chief Executive of Explain The Market, Mark Shone, said: “These are criminals who have likely caught on to the current popularity of Bitcoin.
“But depending on how much they have, these coins are like being in possession of a rare painting. Trying to exchange large amounts for normal money without alerting suspicion will be very difficult.”
A police spokesman said: “Officers were called at about 9.40am to a report that offenders had entered a residential property off Reading Road and threatened the occupants.
“No one was seriously injured during the incident.
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