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Vandal Scrawls 'Hitler Was a Hero' on Jewish Bed-Stuy Residents' Door: NYPD

By Camille Bautista | January 5, 2016 1:52pm
 Anti-Semitic graffiti was found at 59 Vernon Ave. on Saturday morning after someone banged on the building's entrance while shouting profanities, police said.
Anti-Semitic graffiti was found at 59 Vernon Ave. on Saturday morning after someone banged on the building's entrance while shouting profanities, police said.
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DNAinfo/Camille Bautista

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — A vandal scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on the entrance of a Bed-Stuy apartment building, defacing the door with “Hitler Was a Hero” and swastikas, according to police.

The victim, who was observing Shabbat on Friday evening, told police that someone rang the second-floor bell of 59 Vernon Ave. around 11:30 p.m., banging on the building’s main door and shouting profanities, an NYPD spokeswoman said.

The following day, the victim found the graffiti at the entrance, including drawings of male genitalia, police and a building representative said.  

The tenants of the residence near the corner of Vernon and Marcy avenues have been harassed for about a month since they moved in, according to Yehuda Kohn, who said he performed contracting work for the building's owner.

The three families who live in the property are mostly younger couples and are Orthodox Jewish, he added.

“Most people on the block are very friendly,” Kohn said. “But this weekend someone took it to the next level.”

Prior to Friday’s incident, the tenants have received repeated deliveries of Chinese food and pizza that they didn’t order, with requests for payment, as first reported by Orthodox Jewish community website Voz Is Neias and repeated by Kohn.

“The community feels that it’s a safer neighborhood, it’s just that one kid who’s doing that who needs to turn himself in,” he added.

A second-floor tenant declined to comment on the graffiti.  

The NYPD is investigating the incident as a hate crime, police said.