Couple, 76, robbed of $150K in cryptocurrency by hostage takers who threatened to cut off man’s body parts
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Three alleged kidnappers held a 76-year-old couple hostage in their North Carolina home and stole more than $156,000 in cryptocurrency while threatening to cut off the husband’s genitalia and rape the wife, a newly unsealed federal criminal complaint said this week.
The suspects came to the couple’s Durham, North Carolina, residence around 7:30 in the morning on April 12, claiming they were construction workers inspecting pipes, the Thursday complaint said.
After knocking on the door a second time, the suspects, who were dressed in reflective vests to look the part, allegedly forced their way into the home and grabbed the wife by her legs and shoved her into a bathroom where she was zip-tied and watched after by a suspect named Elmer Ruben Castro.
The husband was forced into his home office where a suspect named Remy Ra St. Felix allegedly demanded at gunpoint with a semiautomatic handgun that he log in to his Coinbase cryptocurrency account.
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The three suspects stole more than $156,000 in cryptocurrency from the couple during the home invasion. (iStock)
While on the phone with suspect Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, who the complaint was for, he told him details about the man’s account, making the FBI believe it had previously been compromised.
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The suspects stole $156,853 in three transactions, according to the complaint. A fourth transaction was denied by Coinbase.
St. Felix allegedly struck the husband in the head and threatened to cut off “his toes and genitalia, to shoot him, and to rape his wife if he didn’t access his Coinbase account.”
The husband was then allegedly thrown in the bathroom with his wife after the suspects destroyed his computer and their cellphones. The wife was eventually able to remove her zip-tie and they were able to get to a neighbor for help.
They suffered minor injuries, according to WRAL-TV.
Durham police found surveillance video that allegedly showed the suspects surveilling the home three days before the crime in a BMW and uncovered text exchanges that allegedly showed them planning the robbery.
Hours after the invasion, West Palm Beach, Florida-based Coinbase accounts were allegedly opened under the suspects’ names and thousands of dollars were deposited in each account, according to the complaint.
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Seemungal and St. Felix have been charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Castro’s charges weren’t listed.
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