It was straight out of Hollywood, via Australia. You can almost imagine Mel Gibson playing the tormented father, hell bent on revenge after his teenage daughter was targeted.
18-year-old Madeleine Pulver, daughter of one of the country's richest families, admitted it was "good to be back to normal" after someone broke into her home in Mosman, an affluent Sydney suburb, and strapped a bomb around her neck with a note of demands.
Ten hours later, bomb specialists managed to remove the device, concluding that the bomb was a fake.
Pulver's ordeal was no doubt harrowing, and her father, William Pulver, CEO of an IT company, said he was "extraordinarily proud" of his daughter.
Police in New South Wales are treating the case as an individual incident of "attempted extortion". There is no evidence to suggest it is linked to other crimes.
Strangely, the list of demands did not include a ransom but made reference to Shore, the elite school where Pulver's father and sons studied. Pulver herself is in her last year at Shore's sister school, Wenona, in North Sydney.
Mel Gibson, watch this space.
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