Collar bomb hoax: How Madeleine Pulver is doing eight years on
Madeleine Pulver was just 17 when a balaclava-clad man broke into her Mosman home and strapped what appeared to be a collar bomb to her neck.
The intruder left the device along with a letter demanding cash from her parents, the then-Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver and his wife Belinda.
Pulver, who was in year 12 and preparing for her HSC, had the device locked to her neck for 10 hours before the police bomb squad discovered that the bomb was fake.
The man who installed the device, investment banker Paul Douglas Peters, was later arrested in the US and extradited to Australia, where he was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison for aggravated break and enter and detaining for advantage.
Today, Pulver is 26 and working as an interior designer in Sydney’s Double Bay.
“I’m doing really well, I’m working as an interior designer and I’m loving it,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“I had a career shift last year and I’m doing what I’m really passionate about now.”
After completing her Bachelor’s degree at University of Technology, Sydney, Pulver worked for advertising agencies Edelman and Host/Havas as an account executive.
In 2018, she made a career change with a diploma in interior design from the Billy Blue College of Design.
Pulver said she tries “not to think” about the ordeal that she went through back in 2011.
“[What happened to me] hasn’t hurt my career at all, or at least I hope not.”
In 2017, Pulver received a Group Bravery Citation along with 14 police officers involved in dealing with her incident.