Madeleine Pulver and her alleged assailant, Paul "Doug" Peters

A former NYC resident has been arrested in connection with the bizarre collar bomb hoax earlier this month that traumatized an American teenager living in Australia. Yesterday FBI SWAT Teams swooped down "heavy and hard" with machine guns to arrest Australian man Paul "Doug" Peters, 50, who is accused of breaking into the home of William Pulver, the CEO of an information technology company in Sydney. Prosecutors say Peters, wearing a mask, strapped a realistic-looking bomb to 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver's neck and pinned a hand-written note to her chest with a list of explicit instructions and threats. Then he allegedly fled, leaving to face a grueling 10-hour ordeal.

The Sydney Telegraph reports that Peters, a native Australian living in the U.S., has a LinkedIn profile identifying him as the Managing Director of Douglass Corporation, formerly the now defunct Allco Finance Group. Peters attended the prestigious Scots College in Sydney and studied Law and Economics at Sydney University, and lived in NYC for a time, according to the Post.

The Pulver family had recently relocated to Australia from Greenwich, CT, but it's unclear what connection Peters has with the family. Investigators say there is "some connection" but no "direct links." Peters reportedly owns a house in Copacabana just ten minutes from a vacation home owned by Pulver. He was arrested yesterday in the quiet subdivision of La Grange, where police say he was taken by surprise, and no shots were fired.

An important break in the case came after Peters was identified logging into an email account at an Australian library; the same email account was listed on the extortion note pinned to Madeleine's body. "The actual ins and outs of motive and everything else are yet to be determined and that's part of our ongoing investigation," an official told reporters yesterday. Peters faces charges in Australia that include kidnapping and breaking and entering; after he appears in Louisville court, the extradition process will begin.