A Flushing man was indicted by a Queens grand jury for stealing a Sefer Torah from a Far Rockaway yeshiva in May.
Saul Colon, 37, of Parsons Boulevard, was arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on Monday on the indictment charging him with grand larceny and burglary for taking a safe containing the sacred scroll that is used for public readings during services on Sabbaths, Mondays, Thursdays and religious festivals.
According to the charges, at around 2:30 a.m. on May 7, video surveillance shows Colon and another man, who remains at large, emerging from a dark-colored Ford Taurus at Siach Yitzchok, a religious school located at 1045 Beach 9th St. in Far Rockaway. The two men used a hand truck to remove a locked safe from the school office and then loaded it into the car and drove away from the area.
A school administrator discovered that the safe, which contained the Sefer Torah, was missing several hours later and called the NYPD. Following an extensive investigation, Colon was arrested and told investigators that he and his accomplice had opened the safe and when they saw it contained no cash they left it in a wooded area near the Van Wyck Expressway in Kew Gardens Hills.
Detectives from the Queens Major Case Squad located the stolen safe across from 67-05 Park Dr., near the eastern edge of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The water-damaged Sefer Torah was found inside the safe and returned to the family that had originally donated the Torah to the school.
“This defendant and an accomplice allegedly broke into a religious school and showed profound disrespect for the Jewish community by stealing a sacred Torah scroll,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “For the yeshiva, this Torah was priceless and could never be replaced.”
The Sefer Torah is being cared for by the Rockaway Nassau Safety Patrol. Ten portions were damaged and are being repaired by Rabbi Gedeliah Oppen.
“My office and the NYPD never gave up on this case, and, several months later, we arrested one of the suspects and were able to recover the Torah,” Katz said. “This is an ongoing investigation, and we ask anyone with information about the second suspect to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Karen Gopee ordered Colon to return to court on Sept. 19. If convicted, Colon faces a potential maximum sentence of 7.5 to 15 years in prison.
