Four hooded men broke into a family home in Vendin-le-Vieil, northern France, and held a couple and their two children hostage for more than three hours. The father, a 40-year-old salaried IT worker in the cryptocurrency sector, was separated from his family and forced to surrender account access, with about €40,000, or roughly $46,000, taken in crypto.
The children, aged eight and 12, were restrained with their parents, while the 12-year-old daughter was struck in the face with car keys, according to reporting based on investigative sources. The family eventually freed themselves after the attackers left, and the victims were referred for forensic medical examination while receiving support following the attack.
The Béthune prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into kidnapping and extortion by an organized gang, with regional judicial police and France’s anti-cybercrime office handling the case. All four suspects remained at large, making their identification and the tracing of the stolen crypto the immediate focus of the investigation.
Source: BFMTV.
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