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KIDNAPPING

Norwegian trio busted for kidnapping themselves

Three young Norwegians have been arrested for staging a kidnapping and trying to leach cash from one the trio's family members.

Published: 8 July 2013 16:24 CEST
Norwegian trio busted for kidnapping themselves
The trio called in their blackmail attempt to the family. File photo: Randy Robertson/Flikr

"They have been arrested for attempted blackmail," Per Kristian Klausen, head of the police investigation, told the  Fædrelandsvennen local newspaper.

"They tried to blackmail family members by using a fictional kidnapping."

The trio consists of two women aged 18 and 21, and a 22-year-old man, all of whom hail from Kristiansand on the southern tip of Norway. 

While the police declined to specify how much money the three accomplices had tried to get their hands on through the faked abduction, they expressed their disbelief at the plot.

"I have never seen anything like it," Klausen said 

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KIDNAPPING

Austrian triathlete freed by kidnapper after complimenting orchids

A young Austrian triathlete kidnapped while riding her bike talked her way to freedom by complimenting her captor's orchids, a police source said Saturday, confirming press reports.

Published: 28 July 2019 08:40 CEST
Austrian triathlete freed by kidnapper after complimenting orchids
Photo: AFP

Professional triathlete Nathalie Birli, 27, was struck by a car Tuesday and broke her arm while falling to the ground near Graz in southeastern Austria, the press reports said.

The driver then knocked her out with a piece of wood and took her to his isolated home.

“When I regained consciousness, I was naked and tied up in an armchair in an old house,” Birli told the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

The man forced her to drink alcohol and tried to suffocate her and drown her in a bathtub filled with cold water, Birli said.

However she managed to placate the man by complimenting him on the many orchids growing in his home.

Though he was initially “filled with hate,” the man suddenly became “nice to me” and confided that gardening was his passion before opening up about his troubled childhood, she said.

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

Einmal Glocknerkönigin (oder – Prinzessin ??) werden… #ziemlichnassesocken #aeroiseverything

A post shared by Nathalie Birli (@nathi_birli) on Jul 19, 2017 at 9:29am PDT

Nathalie Birli in an image posted on Instagram

Finally, he agreed to let her go and even took her home, along with her bicycle, which had a GPS system installed in it.

Police used the GPS record to track down the man and arrest him at his house, they said.

The police are now trying to determine if the 33-year-old man, who suffers from psychiatric problems, was involved in any previous kidnappings.