'Collar bomb was a very, very elaborate hoax by intruder'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021874/Madeleine-Pulver-Police-say-explosives-hour-battle-free-heiress.html

The 'collar bomb' that was strapped to an Australian schoolgirl's neck contained no explosives and appeared to be part of an 'elaborate hoax', Australian police have revealed.
In a scene that could have come straight from a Hollywood thriller, bomb squad specialists spent ten nail-biting hours freeing 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver from the 'bomb-like' device.
She said it had been chained to her neck by a balaclava-clad intruder who entered her home in Mosman, a wealthy Sydney suburb, yesterday afternoon.
But it has turned out that the device did not actually contain explosives.
...
Police said they had no idea why Miss Pulver was targeted, but the attack did not appear to be random.
Mr Murdoch added: 'I hardly think that the elaborate nature and sophistication of this device was the result of someone who picked on someone randomly.
'The offender went to a lot of trouble for a particular reason, but what that reason was, police are still working to determine.'
He also revealed that a note had been left inside the house, but did not release details of what it said.
He added: 'There were some instructions left by the offender at the scene and those instructions will provide us with further lines for inquiry.
'Those instructions also limited us somewhat last night in how quickly we could proceed.
'Certainly the instructions were precise, they were such that led us to believe that we were dealing with a very serious and legitimate threat.'
They said they and the family had no ideas as to a motive and also revealed that Miss Pulver had had ‘previous contact’ with the raider.
It was reported the man also warned her against calling the police by saying he had attached a microphone to her so he could hear what she said.
He was also said to have told her he could detonate the device remotely.
Despite the warning, Miss Pulver called police who then embarked on the delicate ten-hour operation to remove the 'bomb', eventually freeing her into the arms of her shaken parents.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she was shocked when she heard about the case.
'When I looked at it this morning, the first thing I said was "it's like a Hollywood script - the kind of thing you would see at the cinema or on TV'," she told Fairfax Radio.

Last year, Mr Pulver's hi-tech information technology business, Appen, joined forces with the Butler Hill Group.
At the time of the multi-million-dollar merger, Mr Pulver, chief executive of the new company, Appen Butler Hill, said the two companies could provide linguistic and voice-recognition services in more than 120 languages for clients including software companies and security organisations, as well as global government agencies.
Customers include Microsoft, IBM, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Telstra.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/family-living-in-lap-of-luxury/story-fn7x8me2-1226107818788

Mr Pulver, 53, is an international businessman well known in media and marketing circles who in recent years brought his family back from New York, where he was the president and chief executive of global research firm NetRatings.

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