More than 150 tires were slashed on 56 vehicles owned by Orthodox Jews living in Lakewood, NJ early Saturday. The attackers targeted cars in the Old Pine Acres section of Lakewood, according to NJ.com. A surveillance camera captured a hooded man stabbing several tires with a knife.
Police believe the suspect also struck last week, slashing more than a dozen tires near an intersection. Those cars also belonged to Jewish families.
Yitzchak Katz told WCBS he woke up Saturday to find four slashed tires on his car: “As I was walking down the block, it was only the Jewish houses that the tires were slashed. That was it. It was pretty obvious.”
“He didn’t even get anything out of it. All he did was just damage other people’s property. It’s one thing if he stole something, because that means he got something. But this is like, this is just beyond comprehension,” Katz said.
Mordechai Yormark told WCBS it was “a hate crime, no matter which way you push it,” stressing, “I don’t want it to be pushed under the rug.”
Vitzy Weil told WCBS: “People stayed up until 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock in the morning, nervous that their cars that weren’t hit the night before will now get slashed.”
According to News 12 New Jersey, the neighborhood has launched a fundraising drive to help families buy new tires.