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Who and Why? On Tuesday, in his mail, the jeweler in the square found a letter filled with white powder, which triggered the intervention of the police and firefighters.
In the aftermath of the police operation in a jewelry store in Martigny, we know a little more about the facts. But not about the author of the sending and his motivation.
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On Tuesday morning, around 9 a.m., a police patrol and a fire engine went to the Fournier jewelry store on the Central square of Martigny. The officers secured the place with tapes. There followed a back and forth between the shop and the outside, enough to arouse the curiosity of many passers-by. The first reflex was to think of a burglary or a robbery. But the presence of firefighters intrigued.
He fears for his hands
The boss of the jewelry store, Thierry Fournier, says that on Tuesday morning, while opening his mail, he came across a completely normal letter, C5 format, addressed to him. But when he opened it, he realized that it was filled with a white powder “like plaster or flour,” he explains today. It contained nothing else, not a word of explanation. Immediately, he feared for his hands that came into contact with the product, which also spread a little to the ground. He washed himself, put the envelope under plastic and then called the police. He did not expect to see such a deployment: “But they are doing their job, it’s normal”.
Chemical specialists
After a three-hour wait, chemical specialists from the CIMO company in Monthey came to help. One of them entered the shop with an impressive protective suit, and he finally took the envelope with him. Soon after, the operation, which had mobilized about twenty police officers and firefighters, was over.
Who and why?
The jeweler had to stay in the shop all morning with his two female employees. They had to stand in isolation again in the afternoon. The malicious envelope had been sent from a local post office with the address handwritten, which doesn’t make many clues. On Wednesday, the police informed him that the product was not dangerous, without being more precise about its nature, and the jeweler was able to reopen his shop in the early afternoon.
But he is shaken and he gets lost in conjecture about the person who could have done him such a blow: “A disgruntled customer? he wonders, it would surprise me, it has been more than forty years that we have been running this jewelry store, we have a good reputation. I don’t see. I would like to know who, and especially why I was made this very bad joke”.