A crypto investor from Kentucky has been arrested after allegedly kidnapping and torturing a 28-year-old Italian tourist in a luxury Manhattan townhouse for nearly three weeks.
John Woeltz, 37, was charged Saturday with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment, and illegal gun possession after the victim escaped the home and flagged down a traffic officer, according to the Washington Post.
The victim arrived in New York from Italy in early May. He was reportedly lured by Woeltz with the promise of getting back some previously stolen Bitcoin. Instead, he was taken to a lavish six-story townhouse on Prince Street in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood, where he was allegedly tied up, beaten, and tortured for more than two weeks.
Woeltz, along with an unidentified accomplice, reportedly forced the man to smoke cocaine, shocked him with wires, and threatened to kill his family unless he handed over his Bitcoin password.
Authorities say Woeltz held the man by the wrists, urinated on him, pistol-whipped him, and dangled him over a stair ledge to scare him into giving up the password. “The victim ran outside and immediately flagged down a traffic agent,” prosecutors said in a bail application obtained by The Washington Post. The victim was shoeless, bloodied, and had wrist injuries consistent with being tied up. He was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Court documents state the victim told Woeltz he would give up the Bitcoin password, which was stored on a laptop in another room. When Woeltz went to retrieve it, the man fled. Police searched the townhouse and found a stash of cocaine, a saw, body armor, night vision goggles, Polaroids of the victim with a gun to his head, and T-shirts printed with images of the victim smoking a crack pipe. Investigators also found an Apple AirTag, allegedly used to track the victim.
Woeltz pleaded not guilty and was held without bail. Prosecutors called him a flight risk citing that he owns a private jet and helicopter. Meanwhile, Law enforcement sources told NBC New York that Woeltz and the victim had been in a business relationship for years.
“I’ve seen a lot, but this is the most unusual thing I’ve seen in 30 years in this neighborhood,” a neighbor by the name of Jennifer Crawford told NBC News. “That’s just beyond what you can even describe or imagine.”
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