But on Thursday, July 7, 1960, Graeme Thorne walked out of home as usual and disappeared. It was just thirty-six days after the lottery win had been announced. When Mrs. Smith arrived at the O'Brien St. corner at 8:35 a.m. and couldn't see Graeme, one of her sons looked in at the nearby grocery store where Graeme sometimes brought potato crisps and waited; but he wasn't there either.

The block of apartments where the Thorne family lived

chapter continues

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Concerned, but not overly worried at this stage, Mrs. Smith waited a short while then drove around to the boy's home and spoke to Mrs. Thorne who was convinced that Graeme would turn up somewhere shortly, though it was not like him to go astray. Mrs. Smith then drove to Scots College but Graeme Thorne had not been seen there either. She left her sons at the college and returned to the Thorne apartment.

Now very worried, Mrs. Thorne rang Sergeant Larry O'Shea at the nearby Bondi Police Station and within minutes he was knocking at the front door. Sgt. O'Shea was taking notes when the phone rang and Mrs. Thorne answered.

"Is that you, Mrs. Thorne?" a man's voice with a thick European accent asked. "Is your husband there?"

"What do you want my husband for?" Freda Thorne asked, sensing that something was wrong.

"I have your son, Mrs. Thorne," the voice replied.

Mrs. Thorne was speechless. Sergeant O'Shea took the phone from her and pretended to be Bazil Thorne. "What can I do for you?" the sergeant asked.

"I have got your boy," the man said. "I want 25,000 pounds before five o'clock this afternoon."

Unaware that the Thornes were winners of the Opera House lottery, Sgt. O'Shea asked in disbelief; "How do you think I'm going to get that kind of money?"

"You have plenty of time before five o'clock," the man replied. "If you don't get the money, I'll feed the boy to the sharks."

"How will I contact you"? Sgt. O'Shea asked.

"I will get in touch with you later on," the caller said and hung up. It was then that Mrs. Thorne told the policeman of their recent lottery win and he understood immediately why someone would want to take their boy.

And so, the events of Australia's first ever kidnapping were set in motion. It was the little boy of an ordinary Australian family who had been plucked from obscurity and become naively vulnerable by its temporary good fortune.

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