Over 30 apartments were broken into in Jerusalem's Har Nof
neighborhood during Pesach using sophisticated forced-entry
equipment. In some cases the burglars removed cinderblocks to
pass from one apartment to another. Policemen and a mobile
forensics lab gathered evidence and fingerprints from the
apartments.
In Bayit Vegan three masked Palestinians broke into an
apartment, but the family members managed to thwart the
intruders. The robbers knocked on the door and called the
apartment owner by his first name. An Arab stepped in and
summoned the man into the kitchen.
The 70-year-old resident hit the Arab in the face and tried
to take advantage of the surprise to call the police, but
before he had finished dialing two more young Arabs, wearing
masks, entered the apartment and tried to strike him with a
metal rod they were carrying. The man dodged the blow and the
rod came down on the phone stand, breaking it in half.
The masked intruders struggled with the elderly man and tried
to tie him to a chair and tape his mouth shut, but he
resisted them, managing to break the finger of one of the
robbers. At this point the man's wife arrived and started
shouting loudly. The alarmed Arabs fled the scene, but the
woman pursued them, managing to make out their license
number. The couple called the police and an officer located
nearby spotted the vehicle and after a short pursuit stopped
the car on the Begin Highway.
"Police investigators told us that based on an initial
investigation the motivation was probably robbery," one
family member recounted. "My father was checked for injuries
at the hospital and is in good condition, boruch
Hashem, and he's already back giving his Daf Yomi
shiur."
Three college students from Tel Aviv were arrested on
suspicions they committed a long series of break-ins in the
city after duplicating keys using Play-Doh. They were caught
with various tools used to force entry.
