US tech whiz allegedly drugged by bogus London Uber driver who stole $123K in crypto
A night out in London took a dark turn for an Oregon tech whiz who claimed he was drugged by a bogus Uber driver who later drained $123,000 from his crypto accounts.
Jacob Irwin-Cline, 30, was on a two-day layover en route to visit family in Spain when he woke up disoriented and financially devastated after getting into what he believed was his rideshare outside a Soho nightclub around 1:30 a.m. on May 9, MyLondon reported.
“I lost $123,000 dollars in crypto and assets,” Irwin-Cline, a former software engineer, told the British outlet of the terrifying ordeal.
“They took the majority of my wealth.”
The unsuspecting crypto investor said he hopped into the car — without double-checking the model or license plate — after the “super chill” driver, who seemed to match the Uber profile, called out his name.
The Portland man then accepted a cigarette from the driver and soon began feeling unusually dazed and drowsy — later suspecting it had been laced with a powerful sedative known as scopolamine, the outlet reported.
“I remember being really docile,” Irwin-Cline recounted, adding that he was in a foggy, semi-conscious state when he handed his phone and passcodes over to the phony chauffeur, who later dumped him in a “weird part” of London and struck him with the car before speeding off.
“I vaguely remember going through applications a bit. He got a couple of passkeys from me to enter applications. There was definitely some sort of drug in the cigarette. I passed out for what I assumed to be 20 to 30 minutes.”
The techie, without his phone, stumbled back to his hostel only to discover that his laptop had been remotely wiped and he was locked out of his financial accounts. When Irwin-Cline regained access, he was shocked to find that the large sum had vanished, the outlet reported.
Irwin-Cline, who reported the chilling incident to British police, has since accepted that the stolen funds are gone for good.
“It’s virtually impossible to get that money back unless some weird miracle happened — taking down that ring and getting these wallets back,” he explained, sharing his concern for other potential victims.
“It sucks man. I’m alive, and that’s honestly — I was not stoked at first — but that’s definitely the more important thing. Money will come and go. It’s just really strange. I’m just worried guys will keep getting away with it. He probably made enough money that he will not have to do this again for a while.”
The brazen heist transpired just days after Kentucky crypto king John Woeltz allegedly kidnapped and tortured wealthy Italian trader Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan for his Bitcoin password at a ritzy townhouse in Manhattan.
The Italian national, who is reportedly worth $30 million, was lured to the Big Apple pad on May 6 and held captive while his tormentors unleashed a litany of horrific tortures, according to sources.
Carturan was tied to a chair and tasered while his feet were in a bucket of water, urinated on, pistol-whipped and had his arms and legs cut with a chainsaw before he was finally able to escape Friday when his captors were distracted, law-enforcement sources said.
Police have arrested three people, including Woeltz, allegedly connected to the vicious ordeal.
