Hacker Theodore Price has admitted to investigators from the Northampton Township Police Department in Pennsylvania that he has stolen millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
The discovery of the heist was made after Price was accused of stealing laptop computers owned by the parents of his girlfriend, Brittany Morton.
Caught after report of laptop stolen
Based on federal court documents, the investigators started to monitor the unemployed 30-year-old Price in early July 2017 due to complaints about the stolen laptops. When asked about the laptops Price denied that he took them. Morton, however, was able to find one of the missing laptops to a tech store and the clerks claimed that Price had sold it for $150.
When Morton went into Price’s home, she found two laptops in computer bags, which she thought were her mother’s missing laptop and the rental computer she had gotten for Price. She also discovered a credit card in her father’s name, as well as credit cards in her late grandmother’s name and her former boyfriend’s name in the bags. The bags also contained lists of the names and personal information of strangers.
Diverting funds using a software bought on dark market
After securing a search warrant, the police searched Price’s home on July 12 and confiscated thumb flash drives, computers, some Micro SD memory cards and a notebook listing several names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit card numbers.
When they interrogated Price, he admitted that the names and numbers were linked to Bitcoin accounts. He further claimed that he was able to use a software he bought from a vendor on the online black market AlphaBay to divert funds from the Bitcoin accounts to his own accounts.
Increasing number of Bitcoin heists through AlphaBay
As previously reported, Bitcoin heists have been made easier through the dark market where another scammer stole over $1 mln worth of Bitcoin from AlphaBay users. The series of notorious heists only add to security concerns on how to protect Bitcoin funds from hackers.
