Tel Aviv – Palestinian Posed As A Religious Jew To Steal Cars

Tel Aviv – A Palestinian car thief was caught in the act last week by Tel Aviv police, while wearing a white kippa in an apparent attempt to pass as a religious Jew, Tel Aviv police reported on Sunday.

The man was reportedly spotted by detectives who were staking-out a car parked on the roof of a Ramat Aviv parking garage Thursday. The car had been reported stolen the night before and after receiving a tip about the location of the car, detectives began surveillance on the spot to see who would show up to claim the car. As they were watching, a young man wearing a kippa approached the vehicle, opened the front door and began trying to start the car, as detectives moved in and arrested him.

After arresting the man police learned that he is a 31-year-old Palestinian man from the village of Azun in the northern West Bank.

Police said they are not sure if he stole the cars or was just going to pick them up, but the incident is consistent with how car thieves typically work inside Israel. Usually a group of thieves from the Palestinian territories will go into an Israeli city like Tel Aviv, steal cars and then park them somewhere like a parking garage to “cool off”, as police refer to the practice.

Later, usually the next day, the same thieves will return to the cars and drive them back to the Palestinian territories. In other cases, they’ll tell an accomplice the make and model and location of the car, and have them pick them up and drive them into the West Bank.

In this particular case, police received a tip-off on Thursday morning and sat watching the two vehicles until the man arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon, wearing a white knit kippa.

On Sunday, the would-be religious Jewish Palestinian car thief was taken for a court hearing, where his remand was extended until Tuesday.

Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post