The owner of a northern Victorian tobacco store is “refusing to cooperate” with investigators, after a threatening sign was stuck to the shop door, police say.<\/p>\n
The message left on the door of the EZ Mart on Campbell Street, Swan Hill, last Saturday stated, “You have 24 hours to contact the Commission”, and included a phone number to contact through the encrypted social messaging app WhatsApp.<\/p>\n
“The shopkeeper is refusing to cooperate with the police,” Detective Inspector David Rowe said.<\/p>\n
“The information has been referred to Melbourne to our anti-organised crime unit.<\/p>\n
“Given that the owner is refusing to cooperate, that information received for intelligence is sitting in our database.”<\/p>\n
The sign is similar to another note that was left on the front window of a Longwarry supermarket in October, a few days before it was firebombed in what shop workers told media was a case of mistaken identity.<\/p>\n
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The sign appeared on the EZ Mart shop on Campbell Street in Swan Hill on Saturday morning. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Shop owners worried<\/p>\n
Shopkeepers in Swan Hill said they had not noticed any suspicious activity but were now worried.<\/p>\n
The ABC has been unable to contact the tobacco shop’s owner.<\/p>\n