This story has so many twists and turns. I can’t even believe it’s true. Is it true? Better not be anyone yelling “PRANK!”
Where to begin…
What happened: British model Chloe Ayling, 20, was booked by her agent in Milan for a photo shoot. Too bad the photo shoot was a fake, and only a cover for sex traffickers to sell her on the dark web.
Drugged, tied up: When she went to the shoot on July 11, her kidnappers drugged her with ketamine, stuffed her into a suitcase, threw that suitcase into a car’s trunk and took her to a house in northern Italy.
Here’s the final photo Ayling took on July 10 before her ordeal. She captioned it “Arrived.” No doubt referring to her arrival in Italy.
How her kidnapping went down:
“A person wearing black gloves came from behind and put one hand on my neck and one on my mouth to stop me from screaming,”she said in her statement…
“A second person wearing a black balaclava gave me an injection in my right forearm. I think I lost consciousness. When I woke up I was wearing a pink bodysuit and the socks I am wearing now.
Ayling remained chained to a wooden dresser at the northern Italian home. If only this was a YouTube prank video. So many clicks.
Fed to the tigers: Ayling feared for her life “second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour.” Her kidnappers told her she’d probably be sold to somewhere in the Middle East. Once her buyers got bored of her, they would resell her (what is this, eBay??) or that she’d get fed to tigers. One of the suspects said:
“When the buyer gets tired of the girl he can give them to others or if she’s not longer of interest she’s ‘tiger meat’.”
Compromising photos: While unconscious, her kidnappers took photos of Ayling which they put on the dark web listing. I assume it’s called a listing, sorta like eBay.
Double-dipping on that commission: Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, one of the suspects and the only arrest so far, not only wanted to sell Ayling on the dark web, but tried to extract a ransom from her agent. Herba asked $350,000 for Ayling’s return.
Left unanswered is what happens if both the ransom and the dark web money came in at the same time. Who would he go with? The highest bidder?
Here’s the kicker: Herba and his crew’s plan went to s**t when they found out Ayling had a kid.
He said it was against the “rules” of his organisation and his superiors were angry. Afterwards they removed the cuffs from her feet and allowed her to move around the farmhouse…
According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Herba said, “You have a two-year-old child and our rules exclude mothers.”
After that, their ransom demands dropped to $50,000. Sooo, a discount you say. Did these kidnappers throw up their hands once they heard she had a kid? “Herba, did you forget to ask for CHILDLESS models??” “D’oh!”
And how did Ayling feel when she heard she wasn’t worth $350,000 anymore? Bet that stung. You know her ego shrank a bunch when they told her she was only worth pennies on the dollar now. Probably thrust her waist out and tried to prove she didn’t have any stretch marks.
The arrest: After negotiating the ransom down, Herba dropped her off at the British consulate in Milan where he was arrested on July 18. He’s being held on investigation of suspected kidnapping for extortion purposes.
More on the dark web: Ayling was listed on a dark web site called “Black Death”. That’s a really horrible name to sell an attractive model. They should use something like “Fair and Pleasant Trade” or “Sunshine Exchange: To Help You Forget You’re Buying a Woman Off the Internet.” On the Black Death website, she was listed under “Trafficking.” Women there get listed with their measurements, and assurances that they are free of STD’s. Very important to know when you’re purchasing a woman.
According to Ayling, Herba also told her that he made $15 million in the past five years from sales. Herba further mentioned that he sold three a week. Huh, his pay seems low. Some back of the envelope calculations show that’s 780 women in five years. That means he makes close to $20,000 per head. Maybe $15m is his cut after commission. If not, time to brush up on those sales skills.
Ayling & Herba have history: Ayling told cops she met Herba on an aborted photo shoot in Paris.
Kidnappers have big balls: After Ayling’s release, the kidnappers had some laughable demands. In a contract taken from Herba’s computer, they found the following terms:
“You are being released with a warning. You are certainly aware of your value on human slavery market. A mistake was made by capturing you.”
“You have agreed to pay outstanding costs of your release of $50,000. We expect that money to be paid in Bitcoin within one month. Any sort of disobedience will result in your elimination.”
“You have been treated fairly with respect and we expect to hear the same about us in return.”
We drugged you, tied you up, threw you in a suitcase and were about to sell you. I HOPE you have some COMMON DECENCY to honor our ransom agreement. Wow, huge balls on these guys.
Suspect was sorta kooky: If you asked yourself, was this guy a loner? Yea, he was.
One man, who lives in the block next to Mr Herba’s described how he would come and go, dressed in a cheap suit and driving a “banged up” car.
“I would see him quite a lot, going in and out of the flat. He would always be wearing a suit when he was going to work,” he said.
“It wasn’t an expensive-looking suit. He would go off to work in the morning, and then every half hour or so he would come back into the flat. It was weird.”
Another resident added: “You’d see him coming in and going again all of the time, but you could never really chat to him. Nobody ever came back with him.”
Little did they know this suspect was an everyday, run-of-the-mill talent scout. Sorta.
Oh, and the rat: As if kidnapping women wasn’t weird in and of itself. Herba would walk around with a rat on his shoulder. I have a feeling this guy didn’t get a lot of dates.
“Every now and then, we’d see him carrying a rat around with him. I don’t think he had a name, the rat.”
“But during the summer months in particular, he’d have this rat on him. It was bizarre, really strange. One day my mum asked him if she could see it.”
“He came up close to her and she had a good look. But even then, he wouldn’t speak to us.”
And finally: Police haven’t identified Ayling’s agent. You know how they say there’s no bad publicity? This is bad publicity. Any conversation with that agent will now end with, “And this photo shoot you have, will I be stuffed into a suitcase and sold on the Internet?” *silence*
Ironically, Ayling now has more press than she’d probably ever have if she wasn’t stuffed in a suitcase and headed for the Middle East. You could say this was her big break and the greatest thing to happen to her modeling career.