Miss Brazil Robbed, Forced
to Surrender Car at Gunpoint

Deborah Lyra has had a great run as Miss Brazil. For a year, the 21-year old beauty queen got the royal treatment, in exchange for a shining smile and the fulfillment of a busy agenda of appearances. Her term as the most beautiful woman in a country known for its beauties went on flawlessly.
Until the other night, when she was robbed at gunpoint in front of her gated condo in Sao Paulo.
Apparently, despite the countless magazines her good looks has graced throughout the year, the robber, “a well-dressed man,” didn’t seem to recognize her and gave her his own brand of royal treatment: no violence or shouts, just a big gun and the proverbial, your purse or your life.
This is no laughing matter, of course, even for a society where street robbery is rampant, and income, class and social gaps can be staggering. But many a “well dressed” man may have thought, once in a while, to get by force what he thinks can’t be had any other, easier way.
Did we mention that he took her cellphone and drove away on her car too?
As soon as she got upstairs, Deborah did what most girls her age would these days: she tweeted her followers. She’s naturally shaken by what happened, but must have realized by now that she was relatively lucky, since there was no trauma involved.
Taking such incident on a stride, it may have actually been a timely wake up call for the former and future model, now that she’s preparing her reentry into the common fray: on July 23, she’ll have to surrender her crown too, this time to a successor.