JANE Leon, originally from Rock Hall, Castries, who has been a resident of Martinique for over thirty years, told The VOICE recently that she was dissatisfied with the manner in which Port Health in the Rodney Bay Marina dealt with a situation regarding the mattress she had brought down from Martinique.
She alleged that after sending her son to collect both the mattress and the bed that she had brought down to St. Lucia from Martinique, her son did receive the bed and that without warning, Port Health destroyed the mattress.
According to Leon, this was done without her knowledge. She had a huge problem with neither being told nor being given a note to let her know that this was going to be done to her mattress.
“You (Port Health) mashed up my mattress, you didn’t send me (any) paper. You didn’t send me a little note. You didn’t tell me anything and you just mashed up the mattress because you big and I small. That is not the way,” she said.
She said that Customs did “everything for me”, and that when they called Port Health to ask about the mattress, they were told that “the mattress was already used” and that’s why it was destroyed.
The Customs and Excise Department was contacted to verify that claim but did not comment on the matter, saying that Port Health would be better suited to verify that claim. However, Port Health could not be contacted to verify those claims, either.
Leon said that there was more than just a smattering of hypocrisy in that explanation, since she was held to standards, others apparently were not. She claimed that “old, old, old” mattresses are being sold in Banannes and La Pansee, yet nobody has destroyed those.
She says that she wants to be reimbursed for the mattress, which she bought for €350.