At least 100 car tires were slashed in a predominately Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey over the past few days, local law enforcement officials confirm.
According to WABC, the owners of the targeted vehicles in New Jersey’s Lakewood Township are all Jewish. Local police told the ABC’s New York City affiliate news station that a “bias” crime investigation is underway. The news outlet noted the town has one of the world’s largest yeshivas, an educational institution where students study the Torah and other Jewish texts. “We’re taking this very seriously,” Lakewood Township Mayor Ray Coles told reporters. “We have all the resources we can muster between the department and the sheriff’s department.
“We will make sure to catch whoever did this,” he vowed.
ABC News further reports:
Elsewhere in the tri-state area, police are investigating a trio of attempted robberies targeting Orthodox Jewish men in New York City’s Brooklyn borough early Monday morning. The separate incidents happened around the same neighborhood within a span of 40 minutes, beginning at 5 a.m. local time.
The victims were a 71-year-old man, a 67-year-old man and a 56-year-old man. In each incident, the victim was approached by a group of three young men who came up from behind and punched them in the face, went through their pockets and then fled with nothing, according to police.
Police say no arrests have been made in the tire slashing case or the robbery attempts.
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