Nine months after Solihull crypto home invasion, Crimestoppers offers £10,000 reward

Crimestoppers announced on Thursday a reward of up to £10,000 for information about a violent home invasion in Solihull, near Birmingham.

The appeal came more than nine months after masked men assaulted a young couple and forced them to send a sizeable amount of cryptocurrency.

A fourth person steered the three robbers over a video call

The West Midlands Police said the couple arrived home at Smith’s Wood, on the eastern outskirts of Birmingham, at about 5:20pm on Saturday, 13 December 2025. As the door swung open, three men from a nearby car shoved into the house after them.

The husband was beaten and left with what police described as “significant injuries.” His wife, then carrying the couple’s third child, faced a knife.

Detectives believe the raid was planned and targeted. Intruders forced the duo to send cryptocurrency to a wallet controlled by the attackers.

The Crimestoppers appeal said a fourth person, who was not in the house, gave the three robbers instructions over a video call.

The gang also made off with a number of high-value watches and fled in what is thought to be a black BMW X3, Crimestoppers said.

Detectives put all four suspects in their 20s. They wore hoods and face coverings, and the sole description released was of a Black man with a small diagonal scar below his left eyebrow.

The reward is only for information given directly to Crimestoppers that leads to an arrest and conviction, the independent charity said. The charity said that callers are never identified and IP addresses are not traced.

No tipster is asked to appear in court, a promise Crimestoppers says has been kept for about four decades.

“Four people planned this and four people know exactly what happened that evening,” said Alan Edwards, the charity’s West Midlands regional manager.

Edwards pointed to anyone who was told about the attack afterward, anyone who saw a friend or relative suddenly flush with cash, and anyone who saw the BMW nearby that Saturday.

Tips can be sent via 0800 555 111 or the charity’s online form, with a reward code requested when making first contact.

France logged 77 kidnapping and extortion cases or attempts by June

The so-called wrench attacks, where people are physically assaulted to force them to hand over their cryptocurrency keys, have shifted toward victims’ homes.

The first-half tally held 20 home invasions, against one a year earlier, Cryptopolitan reported.

The epicenter is France. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said France had 77 crypto-linked kidnapping, detention and extortion cases or attempts by the end of June, compared with 45 for the whole of 2025.

Of 52 verified wrench attacks worldwide between January and June, 33 hit France.

In August, Cryptopolitan reported that a jury at Inner London Crown Court found five men guilty over the 52-hour captivity and torture of two French crypto millionaires held for a $150,000 ransom.

Just days before the Solihull appeal, Béthune prosecutors opened an organized-extortion case after a family near Lens was bound by four hooded men and the father forced to transfer €40,000 in crypto.

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