Taiwan police detain suspect in crypto-linked home invasion

The police in Taiwan have arrested a suspected crypto criminal linked to a home invasion in Bernal Heights, California, in 2022. The criminal, identified as Tianze Zhang, was arrested in Taiwan after attempting to flee the country by boat to the Philippines.

According to authorities, the incident began on March 16, 2022, after a masked man broke into the home of Yuchen Shi while she was alone. The man was welding a knife, covering his face with a balaclava, ski goggles, and blue surgical gloves, threatening to harm her if she made a sound or alerted authorities. The criminal forced her to sit on a chair, zip-tied her to the chair, and issued more threats. He didn’t want cash or jewelry; instead, he wanted her to give up her digital assets.

Taiwanese police arrest suspect linked to home invasion

Throughout the ordeal, the masked man did not speak to his victim, but instead relied on an iPad, typing his demands in it and holding it up for Shi to read and comply. She eventually conceded to his request, logging into her wallet, and moving $3 million in digital assets into a wallet that belonged to the suspected criminal. After the transfer was complete, Shi mentioned that the man grabbed her phone and disappeared.

The San Francisco police were alerted after the ordeal, with the department sending an inspector to the house. What started as a small home invasion soon ballooned into an international manhunt involving the SFPD’s burglary and CSI units as well as its federal liaison officers, private investigators, crypto analysts, the FBI, Interpol, and the Taiwanese authorities. It was the first high-profile “wrench attacks” in the country, and they wanted to see it to the end.

Wrench attacks have been on the rise since the beginning of last year, with several incidents occurring across major cities around the world. It is a crime where attackers rely on physical intimidation or attacks to steal digital assets from their owners. In November 2025, San Francisco experienced another attack similar to the one that happened to Shi. A man posing as a delivery guy rang the doorbell, pulled a gun on the resident, and stole $11 million in digital assets.

Police shed light on the incident

In Shi’s case, newly obtained police documents shed light on the incident. The files detail how investigations chased the suspect halfway across the world in a pursuit that led to the arrest and repatriation of Tianze Zhang, her former personal assistant, in June 2022. A police report showed that a walk-through of the scene was done with Shi before the police recorded their interview with her. In addition, items used in the crime were also collected and swabbed for DNA.

Officers were also able to obtain doorbell camera footage taken earlier that day of the suspect at Shi’s door. The perpetrator was seen wearing a balaclava and ski goggles, but investigators were unable to reveal who was behind the mask. Shi then resorted to telling friends about the robbery and sharing the image of the man at the door. One such person was Zhang, whom she considered her friend. Zhang told her that he was soon heading to Taiwan to work on a film.

Shi eventually hired a private investigator, a move that eventually paid off. The investigator, Carlos Jackson, obtained video taken by the neighbor’s security camera, which appeared to have captured someone walking in the area around the time the incident had occurred. Days later, Shi told the police she had identified the man in her neighbor’s video as Zhang. She mentioned that she had met him in 2021 through a friend and paid him in crypto.

Police then used cellphone data in the next step of their investigation, with the data placing Zhang near the scene of the crime when it occurred. Police documents showed that his phone pinged near Shi’s home before and on the day of the attack. Shi employed several blockchain security firms that traced how the funds moved from her wallet and ended up in Zhang’s wallet. In addition, Zhang boarded a plane to Taiwan a day after the robbery occurred.

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