Crypto broker breaks ankles while fleeing kidnappers in Spain

A UK crypto broker reportedly jumped 30 feet from a balcony to escape kidnappers who were threatening to torture and kill him for his crypto.According to a Feb. 9 report from UK media outlet Metro, three British men have been arrested over the kidnapping. The broker reportedly accepted an invitation for drinks at the kidnapper’s apartment in the nearby town of Estepona and, upon arriving, was told to hand over $30,917 (30,000 euros) from his customers’ accounts or be tortured or killed. The broker managed to call for help by phoning a friend in London — pretending he was phoning a customer to get his access codes. His friend then called the victim’s mother, who called police. Local authorities were able to track down the apartment. 🚩Liberamos en apenas 7⃣ horas a un hombre secuestrado en #Marbella➡️ 3 personas detenidas e ingresadas en prisión provisional➡️ El rehén pudo descolgarse por un balcón de la vivienda donde estaba recluido pic.twitter.com/an3Mr33HPGMetro reports that while the kidnappers were distracted by the police, the broker jumped 30 feet from the balcony, breaking his ankles. In a Feb. 8 statement, Spanish police said when they arrived on the scene, they saw the victim attempting to climb down the apartment balcony before falling to the ground. He was immediately taken to hospital for treatment of his injuries. A subsequent search of the apartment uncovered two firearms, 10,000 euros ($10,305), a money counter, three knives and 25 grams of pink cocaine. All three men were arrested and charged with kidnapping, wounding, belonging to a criminal organization, illegal possession of weapons and drug trafficking. After a court appearance, they were remanded to prison.There has been a growing number of incidents involving in-person crypto robbery in recent years. In October, blockchain investigator ZachXBT said he’d been receiving messages from victims of crypto home invasion thefts in Western Europe at a much higher rate than in other regions.Meanwhile, Jameson Lopp, a cypherpunk and co-founder of self-custodial firm Casa, has created a list on GitHub recording dozens of offline crypto robberies all over the world dating back to 2014, when someone allegedly tried to extort computer scientist and cryptographer Hal Finney of 1,000 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $400,000 at the time. In a more recent case, thieves broke into a home in Brazil and forced a husband and wife to transfer $16,000 in crypto to wallets controlled by the criminals.There have already been nine incidents of in-person crypto-related robbery this year, according to Lopp’s list. In 2024, there were 28, while there were 17 incidents in 2023 and 32 in 2021.