CROWN HEIGHTS — Police are looking for a man who punctured the tires of 12 cars in the neighborhood over the weekend in an incident being investigated as a possible hate crime, sources said.
The NYPD said the suspect deflated the tires of a dozen cars parked on Lefferts Avenue between Albany and Troy avenues in Crown Heights on Friday night just after 9:00 p.m., walking along the row and poking each tire with an unknown object.
The police department released surveillance footage of the incident showing the suspect walking along the sidewalk next to the cars and quickly leaning down next to one of the vehicle’s back right tire before moving on to the next.
The area where the crime happened is home to the Hasidic Lubavitch community and at least 10 of the 12 owners of the damaged cars are Jewish, sources said. The flat tire spree also coincided with the Jewish Sabbath, the day of rest that takes place from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
For those reason, NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the possibility that the crime is a bias incident, but sources said no determination has yet been made about the suspect’s motive.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, (888) 57-PISTA (74782).