Fake utility workers zip-tied elderly Durham couple, robbed over $150,000 in cryptocurrency at gunpoint

An elderly Durham couple was held hostage in their home, bound by zip-ties by men brandishing guns and threatening to ‘cut off the husband’s toes and genitalia, to shoot him and rape his wife,” before forcing them to transfer over $150,000 worth of cryptocurrency to an unknown account.

Two men were dressed as construction workers when they knocked on the couple’s door, pretending they wanted to check the pipes. Instead they pull out their guns and zip-tied the two 76-year-olds.

This was back on April 12, just before 9 a.m. on Wells Street.

This past Thursday, arrest warrants were issued for Jarod Gabriel Seemungal and Remy Ra St. Felix, two of the three men involved, according to NBC News. A third man was responsible for finding the victims, according to the federal criminal complaint.

According to the complaint, prosecutors said the men traveled from Florida to North Carolina to commit the crime – and had surveilled the house for three days.

The unsealed complaint gives more insight into the horrible moments the elderly couple was taken hostage, saying the wife was then dragged by her legs into the bathroom and detained by Castro while Felix allegedly forced the husband into a home office, cut his zip-tie and made him log into his Coinbase cryptocurrency account.

Prosecutors said Felix was on the phone with Seemungal, who told Felix how to have the husband transfer the money from his account. Prosecutors said Seemungal knew details about the husband’s account, which led them to believe that it had been previously compromised.

Over the next 45 minutes, the men allegedly stole $156,853 in three transactions. A fourth transaction was flagged and denied by Coinbase, the complaint says.

Prosecutors said they obtained phone records showing the three men planning the robbery. They also had information belonging to the husband including a picture of his driver’s license and license plate number.

The complaint charges Seemungal and St. Felix with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. A criminal complaint for Castro was not listed.