Victoria’s Secret model kidnapped at gunpoint, held hostage in Brazil shack: Report

A New York-based former Victoria’s Secret model and her family, including her 11-year-old child, were kidnapped at gunpoint and held in a shack in Brazil, The New York Post reported. The Brazilian model, Luciana Curtis, and her husband were eventually released, but not before a terrifying 12-hour ordeal, which included transferring all their money to the miscreants.

The incident happened when the Brazilian model, Luciana Curtis, and her husband were leaving a restaurant in S£o Paulo on Wednesday night. A group of masked men kidnapped Curtis, who has worked with celebrities like Beyoncé, and took the family to a dilapidated shack on the outskirts of the city.

The shack only had a mattress, toilet and a sink inside, the report said. In captivity, Curtis and her husband were forced to transfer all their money to the bank accounts of the gang members. Their car, a GWM Haval, valued at more than USD 33,000, was also taken away.

On Thursday morning, the gang abandoned the family and fled. In the meantime, the model’s eldest child, who had stayed back at home, alerted the police after the couple didn’t return home.

The model and her family then took the help of locals to escape from the area. “The family has been released, and they are safe and well,” a spokesperson for the model told media outlets.

Police are on the hunt for the criminals. No arrests have been made as yet.

Curtis (47), who was born in S£o Paulo, is the daughter of British businessman Malcolm Leo Curtis. She primarily resides in New York.

Curtis, who won the Brazilian Supermodel of the World award in 1993, has been on the cover of fashion magazines like Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan. This year she featured alongside other models on the cover of ELLE Brazil. She has modelled for the likes of H&M and Victoria’s Secret.