re: Bitcoin Theft/Home Invasion Thwarted

A bitcoin “wallet” is simply an address (series of numbers and letters) that receives coins and a “key” which can be represented by a series of words in a particular sequence, like a password, that authorizes the transfer of coins from that address to another. No one “possesses” bitcoin, they are simply entries on a public ledger and the key to an individual wallet simply allows the transfer of coins from that address to another. Those words are usually written down physically somewhere because if they are ever lost, that wallet becomes irretrievable. There are “hardware wallets” which hold that password in a secure environment so you don’t have to actually type the key on a computer and risk a keylogger getting your key, but the backup for those hardware wallets are still that series of words that have to be backed up somewhere.