TechFlow news, on June 21, according to Leparisien, a 23-year-old man in Maisons-Alfort, France was kidnapped and held captive for several hours on Tuesday. Criminals threatened his safety and demanded his girlfriend hand over a Ledger hardware wallet storing cryptocurrency and 5,000 euros in cash.
The incident occurred on the morning of June 19, when the young couple drove out for shopping. Unable to find a parking spot, the man asked his girlfriend to get out first while he continued searching. Later, the girlfriend received a text message from her boyfriend saying he had an urgent work matter to attend to, so she walked home alone.
After returning home, the girlfriend received a video call, only to discover that the person answering was not her boyfriend but a stranger. The man ordered her to prepare a bag containing a Ledger cryptocurrency hardware wallet and 5,000 euros in cash, then wait outside her residence. Her boyfriend would be released if she complied. According to sources, "the criminals used violence to force the victim to provide information."
The kidnapped man was not released until around 5 p.m. that day, when he was abandoned in the neighboring city of Créteil. It remains unclear how much cryptocurrency was stored in the hardware wallet, although reports suggest the wallet may have been empty.
The Val-de-Marne judicial police in France have taken over the case and are investigating charges of "organized gang kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment."
