This past week an online cryptocurrency exchange had its office invaded by three armed men, who were attempting to rob the Bitcoin exchange by coercing the employees to process a transaction. The Canadian police force says the three criminals bound four employees and hit one in the head with a handgun. There was a fifth employee, however, who was fortunately able to contact the police.
The Ottawa Police announced on their Twitter page after finding one of the suspects, 19 year old Jimmy St-Hilaire — who had fled into a ravine. They tracked the suspect down using dogs and had firearms drawn and prepared. Here's the tweet:
The other two suspects have not yet been found, but the police say they are still searching the area. The police also declined to name the business, but they did say it was a "Bitcoin related financial institution", and a Canadian Bitcoin exchange in the near area has stated that there was an armed robbery attempt at their offices:
"Yesterday, there was an attempted robbery at our office in Ottawa. As police have mentioned, no one was seriously hurt during the incident, but one staff member did sustain minor injuries. Our focus is on supporting our staff at this time as well as working with the police in their investigation."
Unfortunately as the value and demand for cryptocurrencies continue to grow, so will the interest of criminals. We saw multiple crypto-related crimes last year, including a kidnapping. Luckily in this case it was a failed robbery, and no staff sustained major injuries.
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