Tefillin Stolen From a Shul in Flatbush Recovered in Crown Heights

By Hamodia Staff

A pair of tefillin stolen off a table in Knesses Bais Avigdor (Harav Aharon Kahn’s shul), located at Avenue J and Eats 18th Street in Flatbush, were recovered in front of Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights.

A few minutes after 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, June 18, a Black male entered the shul and made himself at home, taking some wraps that are set out each morning for the participants of the daily Agra D’Pirka shiur, then entering the shul and making off with a tefillin bag that a boy left on a table after Shacharis.

“People probably assumed that this fellow was an aide for one of the participants of the shiur,” said Rabbi Gedalya Kahn.

Later in the day, people walking in front of Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway noticed the man holding the tefillin and approached him, asking him where he got the bag. When he claimed that it was his own, they forced him to hand it over, and he then fled the scene.

A message was sent out via chat groups which mentioned the name of the owner, which was embroidered on the front of the bag, and before long the family was contacted.

“Several of my cousins were called and asked if the tefillin belonged to them,” the father of the boy, who wished to remain anonymous, told Hamodia. “Before long, we were informed that the tefillin were found, and they were returned to us in good shape.”

Surveillance video from the close circuit cameras caught the perpetrator in the hallway, and has been turned over to the NYPD.