I have some explaining to do

So…. Finally, the explanation. I will try to explain everything as best as possible. In short, what happened was that someone was sending extortion letters to families in Bladel and surrounding villages in which he/she threatened to hurt/kidnap their children or burn down their houses if they did not pay him money. He stated in the letters that they had to transfer money to… my account number, my name and my place of residence. Once they had arrested this person they found out that it was all just a huge coincidence that my account number and name was used, because he had simply googled Bladel + account and had found our Hidden Treasures website with the information he used in the letter amongst the various hits. But before this was found out I had already been taken from work to the police station by two policemen, where I was interrogated as a suspect for one-and-a-half hour…

That wasn’t even the most distressing part really, even though I was in utter shock when my boss took me apart and told me policemen were coming to take me to the police station because I was a suspect in an extortion case. Those policemen soon enough understood I had nothing to do with those letters and was just another victim. But they did assume the person who was sending the letters had to have some sort of direct connection to me and it would probably be someone I knew. So, everyone passed the review: my parents, brother, friends, co-workers, customers of our website, and so on. But there was no-one I could imagine I knew who would do this. They kept insisting it would be someone close to me, so I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone besides my parents and boss. Because it said in the letters that I had nothing to do with it, was just being used and had gone through the same thing the families were going through and I hadn’t heard from the perpetrator up until that point the police assumed he/she would try to contact me. Afterwards we heard he actually did call me, but he got my mother as I was at work at the time who told him I wasn’t at home. He said he would call back later, but he never got the chance to do so, because by that time the police had already raided his house and arrested him ..

I was very glad they caught him this fast (three days after I was interrogated), because I was extremely stressful during the days after the interrogation. Because everyone was convinced it was someone with a connection to me, you start to look at everyone around you and think about whether this person would be capable of doing such a thing. You try to think about whether you’ve hurt anyone or stepped on anyone’s toes. You keep pondering, even though it doesn’t get you anywhere. In the end I was very thankful it was someone I didn’t know at all and that it wasn’t personal. They told me his name, but he’s a complete stranger to me. The police made it very clear to me this man has some psychological issues and needs serious help. He has confessed everything, they’ve found the letters on his computer and five families have made declarations against him, so it’s very likely he’ll get convicted. Hopefully he’ll get some mental help, because he certainly needs it. It’s all over and done with and I’ve been able to let it all go. I’m very grateful for the support I received from both my parents and my bosses at work during those couple of days. They all stood by me. Just imagine what this could have done to my career if they hadn’t!

If you have any questions or if there’s anything not quite clear to you, please let me know and I’ll try to explain more thoroughly.