Footage taken outside of a Bitcoin exchange in the English city of Birmingham shows a group of masked men raiding the offices of the exchange.
The footage was reportedly taken on July 15, and it is some of the only evidence that West Midlands Police have in the case. Multiple witnesses saw the attempted robbery take place, and while no one dared to interfere with the burglars, they did manage to record the final moments of the failed heist.
Adam Gramowski, the owner of the exchange, says that the thieves attempted to steal a Bitcoin ATM by tying a rope around the machine and attaching it to their car.
Gramowski suspects that the thieves were hoping that cash was stored in machine, but he says that there wasn’t any inside. They wouldn’t be able to get any Bitcoin out of the machine either. Gramowski told the Daily Mail:
“I assume that what can be seen in the clip was some sort of rope, that the robbers wanted to attach to the ATM in order to rip it off the wall and drag it behind the car. As you can see, the thieves were spotted by our CCTV operator and were scared away by our countermeasures. There are no BTC [Bitcoin]in the machine, they are being sent directly from our server. The robbers were after cash.”
An alarm rang as the thieves broke into the store, causing them to frantically grab what they could before fleeing.
After the incident, video of the failed heist was posted on Facebook with the caption, ‘Good morning Birmingham – let’s start the day off with a video of a robbery in Sparkhill last night.’
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said:
“Police are investigating an attempted burglary at The Bitcoin Exchange on Formans Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham just before 10pm on Monday (15 July). A group of people gained access to the shop, but left without taking anything. Enquiries continue and anyone with information is asked to contact us via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk between 8am and midnight or call 101 anytime, quoting crime reference 20BE/168249B/19. 'Crimestoppers can be called anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
In person theft is certianly still a problem in the world of crypto. Earlier this month, CryptoGlobe reported that Six men and one woman were arrested in India for kidnapping three people in an attempted Bitcoin ransom.
