Earlier this week, a 41-year-old man threw severed pig heads into the chocolate displays in three Bachmann confectionary shops in the central Swiss city.
Following the man’s arrest on Tuesday night, Liberal Party member of parliament Otto Ineichen was shocked to realise that the perpetrator was in fact his own nephew, Reto.
“I have not had contact with Reto for many years,” he said. “So I cannot judge his condition.”
Ineichen apologised to the Bachmann family, while heaping praise on their long-standing confectionary business.
“This is a tragic incident,” he said.
Bachmann had employed Reto, who suffers from schizophrenia, as part of a disability employment programme some two years previously, when he had spent several months cleaning the display counters.
Anger at having lost his position is thought to be have provided the motivation for the attacks.
Reto has now been taken in to a closed psychiatric clinic.
“It’s good that he’s in custody now,” confectioner Matthias Bachmann told Blick. “The employees were scared and terrified.”
Bachmann said he is now considering making small, smiling, chocolate pig heads for sale in his shops.
Meanwhile, the police have yet to confirm where the severed pig heads came from.
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