---
title: "Bernie Ecclestone’s Kidnapped Mother-In-Law Has Been Rescued"
description: "67-year-old Aparecida Schunck was being held for a $36.5 million ransom."
date: "2016-08-01"
modified: "2016-08-01"
authors:
  - name: "Aaron Brown"
    job_title: "Staff Editor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/aaron-brown"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/4660/bernie-ecclestones-kidnapped-mother-in-law-has-been-rescued"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
  - "People"
tags:
  - "Bernie Ecclestone"
---

# Bernie Ecclestone’s Kidnapped Mother-In-Law Has Been Rescued

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/080116-bernie-ecclestone-mil-found-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Good news for the family of Formula One's head honcho. [Bernie Ecclestone's mother-in-law has been found](<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36938252>) and freed following a ["major police operation"](<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36938252>) after being kidnapped in Brazil last week. The captors had been demanding a ransom of approximately $36.5 million.

Aparecida Schunck, the 67-year-old mother of Ecclestone's [wife Fabiana Flosi](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/4570/was-bernie-ecclestones-mother-in-law-kidnapped-in-brazil>), was [taken from her home in Sao Paulo, Brazil](<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36938252>) on July 22nd. Following an investigation, police tracked her down to a house in a lower-class neighborhood in the Brazilian town of Cotia and rescued her safely. Two suspects were arrested by authorities.

[Law enforcement listened in on phone calls](<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36938252>) between the criminals and Schunck's family to gather the information required to release her, the *BBC* reports. Police reportedly found Schunck tied up but unhurt by her kidnappers, and were able to extract her without injury.

The *BBC* reports that before Schunck was rescued, Ecclestone wanted to assist police with their efforts by involving a private security firm to go back and forth with the criminals, and also by traveling to Brazil himself to help out personally. Police informed the F1 boss that doing so could have possibly interfered with the investigation. To be honest, proactively helping someone in need sounds a little out of character for [the Bernie we know](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/609/bernie-sanders-vs-bernie-ecclestone>). But hey, maybe he has a sweet spot for his mother-in-law.

Ecclestone, 85, is currently [estimated to have a net worth of around $3.1 billion](<https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-ecclestone/>), so he could have shrugged the ransom off as a rounding error. Luckily for him and his family, though, the Brazilian police rendered that course of action unnecessary.

## Author
Aaron was previously a contributing writer with Jalopnik and has also written for Business Insider covering cars. When he's not in the office writing the news, you'll probably find him thrashing a beater car around a RallyCross.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/aaronmaxb>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/aaronmaxb>)