UPDATE: Three people have been taken into custody for questioning in connection with the kidnapping of Katlego Marite, according to TimesLive. They have however not been arrested or charged. This is a developing story.
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A criminal gang that kidnapped a teenage boy on Sunday is demanding a ransom in cryptocurrency Bitcoin of nearly $120,000 [~R1.5-million], police said.
Katlego Marite, 13, was dragged into a car while playing with two friends near his home in Mpumalanga's Emalahleni — the coal-mining city formerly known as Witbank — on Sunday afternoon, police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi said.
"They demanded that the family should deposit a sum of 15 Bitcoins, not in rands," he told news channel eNCA. "(The parents) don't even know what these Bitcoins are. They are not dealing in those things. They are in tatters, as we speak."
Although police have reported a recent rise in kidnappings, the ransom demand in cryptocurrency appears to be a first.
In December, kidnappers in Ukraine received a ransom worth more than $1-million [~R12.6-million] in Bitcoins for releasing their victim — an employee of a British cryptocurrency exchange.
– Reuters