American Tourist Loses $123,000 in Crypto After London Ride Share Robbery

An American tourist, Jacob Irwin-Cline, 30, from Portland, Oregon, was allegedly drugged and robbed of $123,000 in Bitcoin and XRP after a night out in London. The incident occurred on May 9, when Irwin-Cline, who was in the UK for a two-day layover to visit his parents, went out to The Roxy on Rathbone Place in Soho. After drinking around three whiskey sours, he decided to head back to his hostel at approximately 1:30 am. He called an Uber using the app on his phone and left the bar.

However, outside the bar, a private hire driver flagged him down, calling out the alias Irwin-Cline had saved as his name in the app. The driver, who Irwin-Cline recalled as Mohammed, looked like the man in the photo that showed up on his app, but Irwin-Cline did not have time to cross-reference the number plate or make and model of the car with the details on his phone. The car that pulled up was a 'dark sedan,' not the Toyota Prius advertised on the Uber app. Irwin-Cline accepted the driver's offer to sit in the front passenger seat, recalling that the driver seemed "super chill, super nice."

The situation took a turn when the driver offered Irwin-Cline a cigarette, which he now believes was spiked with scopolamine, a powerful sedative known as 'devil's breath.' Irwin-Cline passed out and regained consciousness in an unfamiliar part of London. He claims the driver asked for his phone for directions and his passcode, gaining access to his crypto wallets. When Irwin-Cline came to, he found himself in a strange neighborhood, and the driver had driven off, hitting him and leaving him injured on the side of the road.

Irwin-Cline, who had a labral repair on his right hip around six months prior, was left 'crippled' and 'unable to walk' for multiple days after the incident. He was taken back to his hostel by a kind stranger and found his laptop had been remotely wiped. He immediately tried to regain access to his accounts with the help of a flatmate in America. After three days without sleep, he discovered that $123,000 in crypto and assets had been stolen from his wallets.

Irwin-Cline believes the robbers might have used scopolamine, a drug that makes victims blackout and unusually open to suggestion. Though it is virtually unheard of in the UK, there have been cases where the drug was used to incapacitate and rob victims. Irwin-Cline had never expected to encounter such a drug in Europe, having visited South America himself and being familiar with official US Government warnings about it.

The incident highlights the risks associated with using ride-sharing services and the potential for cybercrime in the crypto space. Irwin-Cline has reported the alleged robbery to the Metropolitan Police, Action Fraud, the FBI's special IC3 cybercrime unit, and Uber. He is currently staying at an Airbnb in Clapham with his family to make himself available for a police interview. The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that they are investigating the incident, but no arrests have been made as of yet.

Irwin-Cline, who was made redundant from his developing job around a month ago, is not optimistic about the chances of recovering his stolen crypto. He believes it is virtually impossible to get the money back without the help of the FBI's Virtual Assets Unit, which was set up in 2022 to provide crypto expertise, blockchain analysis, and virtual asset seizure training. Irwin-Cline's experience serves as a cautionary tale for crypto investors and highlights the need for increased vigilance and security measures in the crypto space.