The Rise of "Wrench Attacks": Million-Dollar Bitcoin Heist Shakes Versailles

An awful home invasion in Le Chesnay, close to Versailles, draws attention to the escalating physical dangers that cryptocurrency holders confront. Three people pretending to be police officers broke into the home of a couple in their late 50s on March 9, 2026. The assailants threatened the lady with physical harm to force her spouse to hand over about USD 1 million (about €900,000) in Bitcoin to a specified digital wallet, thereby holding the victims at knifepoint. The couple was tied by the suspects and left the scene in a van, leaving the woman with a little shoulder damage. Confirming the transfer had bound the couple.

Characterizing the offenses as kidnapping, aggravated robbery by an organized gang, and criminal conspiracy, the Versailles Prosecutors' Office has started a high-priority investigation. A specialized unit of the French judicial police, the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB), is leading the investigation right now. Though no arrests have yet been made, a large-scale manhunt still continues over the Yvelines area as March 10, 2026, marks its conclusion. The degree of premeditation and the employment of police disguises to win the victims' trust particularly alarms law enforcement officials.

This horrific theft fits a worrying pattern of "wrench assaults"—physical assaults meant to extort digital assets—that have been increasing all throughout France in recent years. Between mid-2023 and the end of 2025, authorities reported 40 organized incidents of such violence, mostly allegedly sponsored by foreign criminal groups. Security specialists caution that the situation could worsen even more in 2026 as Bitcoin's market value keeps rising, drawing high-net-worth people as more appealing targets for sophisticated criminal cartels using social engineering and data leaks.