A 28-year-old was reportedly robbed of his bitcoin at gunpoint
A thief stole about $1,100 worth of bitcoin late last month. According to CNBC:
The latest combination street-cyber crime occurred at around 11:30 a.m. on May 27 in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
The 28-year-old victim told police he went to a street corner there to meet a man who had answered his Craigslist.com ad offering bitcoins for sale, police said.
The purported buyer then led the victim to a car to complete the purchase, where another man sitting in the backseat pulled a gun and ordered the victim to electronically transfer the bitcoins to the thieves, cops said.
Back in February, the Observer wrote about a spate of bitcoin robberies that had happened in the city. This is, in part, because bitcoin is so hard to trace once the money has been transferred. The Observer writes, "bitcoin isn't exactly anonymous, per se, but a thief who is smart and careful enough can make it nearly impossible to be linked to an account once he's received his payload."
Bitcoin is hard to buy. There are a limited number of places online to buy it, many of which take several days to transfer the currency to your wallet. There are also a few bitcoin ATMs, which transfer you bitcoin immediately - but there are only eight in NYC. And then there's an in-person transfer. Depending on the circumstances, that can be the best way to get bitcoin immediately.
But it also seems to be a good way to be robbed at gunpoint.