Kidnapped Austrian triathlete sweet-talks captor into letting her go: report

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An Austrian triathlete said she was kidnapped and stripped naked by a van-driver earlier this week but managed to sweet-talk him into returning her home before he could do worse, according to report Friday.

Graz resident Nathalie Birli, 27, was riding her bike near her home when a van driver knocked her unconscious and took her back to his home, The Times reported.

An Austrian woman said she was kidnapped Tuesday while riding her bike in Graz.  (Google Maps)

When she regained consciousness, she was naked and tied to a chair “in an old house,” Birli told the paper.

The man told her: “If you do what I want, you’ll be free tomorrow,” according to her account of the ordeal.

She said the man poured alcohol down her throat, tried to suffocate her, then forced her to get into a bathtub full of cold water and threatened to drown her.

But as the day went by, she managed to bring down her captor’s guard by sweet-talking him, Birli said. After she complimented the man’s orchids, he suddenly changed his tune.

“I admired them,” she said. “All of the sudden the culprit was nice to me. He said he was a gardener.”

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Later, she managed to negotiate her release.

“I made him a suggestion: ‘Let’s just say it was an accident and you can let me go now,'” she said. “He accepted the deal and cut the tape. I was allowed to get dressed and then he drove me all the way to my front door.”

By the time her captor drove her home, her partner had already notified police of her disappearance, prompting a search, The Times reported.

Authorities tracked the suspect using a GPS from her bike and arrested him in his home. His identity has not been released.

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Later on Facebook, Birli wrote: “I was hit, beaten together, caught up and brought to a small house off the road – like in a bad movie,” she wrote on Facebook. “Thank God I was able to free myself and I am well except for a broken arm and a head injury.”