A Maltese pensioner has accused North Korean hackers of stealing €1,000 from underneath his mattress.
Francis Azzopardi, 72, from Għargħur, said the theft happened last week.
“I needed €10 to buy Super 5 tickets. Every week I buy five tickets all with the same numbers to increase my chances of winning,” Azzopardi said.
“So I went to my bedroom to withdraw it, but when I lifted up the mattress all the money had vanished. It must have been those North Koreans I heard about on the news. They hacked into my house and took the cash from right under my nose. I don’t know how they managed to get past the fitted bedsheet. It’s amazing what those Japanese people can do with a computer. They’re very sneaky.”
He added that he would be writing a letter to the Chinese government demanding that they return his money and extradite the hackers to Malta.
“I don’t know how they do things in Vietnam, but over here we don’t go around doing cyber crimes against people’s mattresses,” he said.
Azzopardi’s wife, Theresa, had a different theory as to what had happened.
“I took the money so that idiot would stop spending it on lottery tickets,” she said.
