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Man in US arrested over Australia’s ‘collar bomb’ hoax
A man accused of chaining a collar bomb – which turned out to be a hoax – to the neck of a teenage girl in Australia earlier this month has been arrested in the United States.
According to the FBI, a 51-year-old man war arrested near Louisville, Kentucky, in an operation involving their Swat team. Paul Douglas Peters was taken into custody without incident, the FBI added.
Peters is accused of strapping a suspected explosive device round the neck of Madeleine Pulver, 18, in a Sydney suburb. He will be arraigned in Kentucky.
Australian authorities plan to seek his extradition.
The 18-year-old girl’s father, Bill Pulver told reporters: “We are enormously relieved that an arrest has been made. These past two weeks have been a very difficult time for us.”
On August 3, a man wearing a balaclava broke into Pulver’s home, and strapped a device to the girl’s neck that he claimed was a bomb he could detonate by remote control and left behind a ransom note.
He also told the girl that the device had a microphone that allowed him to monitor her conversations.
After a 10-hour order, officers were able to remove the device, which turned out to be harmless.
