A “very, very elaborate hoax”, said NSW Police, “we had to treat it seriously until we could prove otherwise.” They don’t believe Madeleine Pulver was complicit, and reports suggest she may have been victim to an extortion attempt on her father William, CEO of Appen Butler Hill — the company working with Microsoft to give the Xbox Kinect Aussie voice controls.
Full Story: Twitter Gripped By Sydney Girl With ‘Collar Bomb’ Around Neck
wsDK_II
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:44 AMHmmmm, i would not put it past Apple to be behind this!
drew
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:44 AMIt’s not a case of ‘all is well that ends well’ here; this sort of ordeal would have some very heavy impacts on such a young girl. god knows I couldn’t imagine being in the same situation and keeping as calm as she has.
It’s a shame there’s people out there that target the children of wealthy parents as an ‘easy’ way to extort money.
I really do hope Madeleine gets past this horrible situation and at the same time I’m extremely impressed by the courage of both her and the officer that first appeared on the scene.
I’m sure you may have read of her, but a young female officer sat with Madeleine until the specialists arrived, herself wearing no protective gear, keeping her company. selflessly impressive.
Next time someone complains about being pulled over for speeding, consider the fact that the officer pulling you over may one day be in the same position as the ones that arrived on the scene yesterday. They’re not tax collectors.
Steve B
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:48 AMWell they did promise voice control last year, but we’re still waiting..
I don’t love my Kinect enough to go to this extreme though.
John
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 12:00 PM…and more will happen to others if Kinect doesn’t get Aussie voice controls. AND SOON!!
Luke
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 12:05 PM5 internet bucks by says that by the end of next week she would have been on either Today Tonight or ACA or both and by the end of the fortnight she would be on at least 2 magazine covers.
Time to put on the tinfoil hit… its conspiracy time, she could have done it herself to gain public and media attention or she wanted to extort money out of her parents.
Art
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 12:37 PMTin foil hat or no tin-foil hat, I can’t help but agree with everything you said. There’s a few not-quite-right things with the story.
Aliasalpha
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 12:48 PMThere might be something to this hypothesis, the news said it was planted there by a stranger wearing a balaclava, just how did she know if it was a stranger if he was wearing a balaclava hmm?
I REALLY doubt its a sad attention getting trick, even though I’m an overwhelmingly cynical bastard I’d like to think that most people are slightly more classy than that.
chrisp
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 9:20 AM+1, Art. A big ole mansion with walls and a stranger in a balaclava gains access. I’m calling shenannigans. If not, massive security fail on the part of the owners.
cayal
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 1:31 PMI agree about being a ‘celebrity’, though don’t think it was an inside job.
Corteks
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 1:01 PM“the news said it was planted there by a stranger wearing a balaclava, just how did she know if it was a stranger if he was wearing a balaclava hmm?”
It’s natural to say a stranger if you have no idea who it is. It’s freakin’ shorthand for it. Your statement makes absolutely no sense.
Who knows, maybe you were being sarcastic or something *shrug*
cayal
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 1:30 PM“Who knows, maybe you were being sarcastic or something *shrug*”
I thought that was obvious.
Aliasalpha
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 4:28 PMGlad someone can pick up on a joke
Glenn
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 1:41 PMI’m actually entirely unsurprised that this was a hoax. I saw it last night and I thought to myself who the hell goes and straps a bomb to a girl for a ransom… Why not kidnap her.
Maniacal
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 6:26 PMExtortion would be better than kidnapping. This could just be an example by the perp as a message to say that ‘Hey, you can’t hide from me’. And extortion does not necessarily mean an attempt to get money. Who knows what the perp is after or what the parents already know?
Ash
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 11:39 AMEither way, she’s pretty hot.
chrisp
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 6:50 PMeeeeeuuuuu…… no she ain’t. Dude, get a hobby.
desallis
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 5:18 PM“kinect, defuse bomb collar”
Sorry, your command was not recognized