Two high-schoolers from San Luis Obispo County were arrested last weekend in Scottsdale, Ariz., after they allegedly posed as deliverymen to get into a house where they had been told $66 million in cryptocurrency was stashed, police said.
The two boys told investigators they hadn’t known each other before unknown people they met on the Signal app “extorted” them into participating in the burglary plot, according to court documents obtained by Phoenix TV station KSAZ.
The invasion of the occupied home was interrupted after police received an emergency call around 10:45 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 31. The responding officers heard a woman screaming and saw a man in the home struggling with a youth, the police said.
When the officers entered the house, two people fled out the back door, got into a blue Subaru and drove off. The pursuit ended when they were boxed in at a dead-end, the police said.
The pair are a 17-year-old from San Luis Obispo and a 16-year-old from Morro Bay, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported. The older is a student at San Luis Obispo High School and the younger at Pacific Beach High School, also in San Luis Obispo.
They reportedly told police that they were given $1,000 to buy disguises and restraining devices and were given the address of the Scottsdale home, 600 miles from where they live. Their contacts on the Signal encrypted messaging app — whom they knew only as “8” and “Red” — instructed them to get into the house and compel the residents to hand over cryptocurrency, they said.
Police said they found “UPS-style” clothing, zip ties, duct tape and a 3D-printed gun left behind when the attackers fled.
The mother of one of the teens reportedly contacted police in California after accessing phone messages concerning the plot, but the Scottsdale police didn’t receive the information until after the break-in.
The boys were booked into a Maricopa County juvenile detention facility on suspicion of crimes including aggravated assault, kidnapping and second-degree burglary. They were released on $50,000 bail with ankle monitors, KSAZ reported.
The police report didn’t specify if the homeowners suffered injuries during the invasion. Their adult son had been in the home with them and made the 911 call while hiding from the intruders.
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