‘Give money. I’ll kill you. I know where you live.’ Several threatening letters have been delivered in Heerlen with these kinds of texts. The letters seem to be related to the shelter for drug addicts on Gasthuisstraat and are addressed to people who are critical of the presence of the shelter in the Molenberg district.
Patrick de Rey, chairman of the neighborhood committee, recently received two threatening letters. And now one has also been delivered to councilor Roel Leers (Hart-Leers), who also lives near the addicts shelter. Both have filed a police report.
Letters to the police now
According to Patrick de Rey, the letter came from someone from the shelter. “Because it also has a name on it. But in theory it could also be that someone else is pretending to be a client of the day care,” says De Rey. The police collected both letters. The municipality of Heerlen is now also aware of the situation.
Neighborhood is critical
According to De Rey, a reason for the threat could be that he and various local residents have been critical of the reception for a year. According to local residents, there is a lot of nuisance in the street, drugs are being dealt in and clients often hang out on the street. The chairman was touched by the threatening language in the letters. “It doesn’t feel good. Every time I go outside, I look around me.”
Letter to councilor
It is not known what is in the letter addressed to councilor Roel Leers. He himself did not open the letter, but immediately gave it to the police. Leers already knew about the threats against De Rey. Leers saw from the shape of his threatening letter and the typeface that it must be the same writer. He doesn’t know why Leers is being targeted. “Good question. Maybe because we have the same opinion, but this is absurd,” says Leers. He expects action to be taken now. “Because what’s the next step? Who gets the next letter, because this is going too far.”
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army, which runs the daycare, deplores the situation. “We are very sorry that two local residents have received threatening letters. This is of course very threatening and confrontational. Contact has now been made with local residents. We are currently awaiting the results of the police investigation before responding substantively,” said spokeswoman Nicolette. Forest to. She indicates that the alleged sender has also been spoken to, but does not want to comment further on the content of that conversation.