Masked Hammer Attackers Force Crypto Investor to Transfer Life Savings in Front of Pregnant Wife

A businessman in Solihull was subjected to a brutal 45-minute assault inside his own home by three masked intruders wielding hammers, who threatened to stab his seven-months-pregnant wife in the stomach and kill her unborn child unless he surrendered hundreds of thousands of pounds in cryptocurrency. The couple, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, described the December attack as "horrific" and said they genuinely feared for the life of their unborn baby throughout the ordeal.

The man, referred to by the BBC as James, recounted how the violence began the moment his front door was forced open. He described seeing gloved hands and balaclavas pushing through the entrance before the intruders launched themselves at him. Although he attempted to fight the men off, they struck him repeatedly in the face, head and ribs with hammers, leaving him with serious injuries that later required hospital treatment.

While James was being beaten, one of the criminals pinned his wife down on the sofa and pressed a pillow over her face. James said he could hear her screaming that she could not breathe as the man smothered her. At that stage, neither of them understood what the attackers were after, and the uncertainty added to the terror of the situation.

The motive only became clear when one of the men demanded that James unlock his phone and hand it over. According to James, the intruders appeared to know that he held cryptocurrency but had almost no idea how to access it themselves. Instead of operating independently, they were relaying instructions from another person who was watching and directing them through a live video call.

James said he could hear a man on FaceTime ordering the attackers to show him everything on the phone and to list which apps were installed. When the person on the call identified a crypto wallet holding substantial funds, the threats escalated sharply. James recalled the caller warning that if the money was not sent immediately, the gang would stab his wife in the stomach and kill both her and the baby.

The couple's account, given to the BBC, describes an attack that stretched on for the better part of an hour, with the pregnant woman held down and suffocated while her husband was beaten and coerced into authorising a transfer. She later said she feared James had been killed when she saw him lying unresponsive on the floor.

His wife, who is in her early thirties and was expecting the couple's third child at the time, said the experience was terrifying and that she worried the stress might cause her to lose the baby. The child survived and was born at full term, but the psychological impact of the night has clearly endured.

The intruders eventually left after James transferred his entire crypto savings, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, into a digital wallet controlled by the man on the video call. The gang also took several luxury Rolex watches from the property. James said that as they prepared to leave, he heard the man on the call tell his accomplices they could keep ten thousand pounds each while he would take the remainder.

The attackers fled in a car driven by a getaway driver who had been waiting outside without any face covering. Police have so far been unable to identify those responsible. The charity Crimestoppers has offered a reward of ten thousand pounds for information that leads to progress in the investigation, and the attack was captured on home security footage that investigators are examining.

Alan Edwards of Crimestoppers urged anyone with knowledge of the three attackers, the driver or the man on the phone to come forward. He said the offenders are clearly serious criminals tied to an organised gang, and he stressed that the charity operates independently of the police and guarantees complete anonymity for those who provide information. The three attackers are believed to be in their late teens or early twenties, and one is described as a black male with a scar beneath his left eyebrow.

The case is being treated by experts as an example of a growing category of violent theft known as a "wrench attack", in which criminals target cryptocurrency holders directly rather than attempting to hack their accounts remotely. Crypto investigators at Chainalysis say such attacks have surged in recent years, with thirty million dollars stolen in violent robberies in the first half of this year alone, putting 2026 on track to become the worst year on record for this type of crime. Home invasions linked to digital assets are also rising.

The geography of the threat is broadening. The United States, Brazil and Thailand have been identified as hotspots, but France has recorded by far the largest number of attacks, a trend attributed to a data breach at a tax office that appears to have helped criminals locate wealthy crypto holders. The United Kingdom has also seen reports of similar robberies as digital coins have risen in value.

Researchers at Chainalysis explain that cryptocurrency differs fundamentally from money held in a bank account, because it is typically controlled directly by the owner through digital wallets or physical storage devices. That combination of speed, anonymity and irreversibility makes holders attractive targets. The physical security assumptions that protect traditional wealth, such as bank vaults and armoured cars, do not automatically apply in crypto, and many holders keep their assets in relatively low-security setups that can be compromised without any institutional gatekeeper standing in the way. Once funds are transferred, recovering them is extremely difficult.

James said he had become an amateur crypto investor in 2020 and made enough money to leave his job in 2023 and trade full time. He has now lost everything and is looking to return to conventional employment. He added that he holds little hope of ever recovering the stolen funds, and that his priority is seeing those responsible brought to justice.