By Forum Staff
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Saul Colon was charged on Monday for his role in allegedly stealing a safe containing a Torah scroll from a Far Rockaway yeshiva in May.
Colon, 37, of Flushing, was arraigned on charges of grand larceny in the second degree, burglary in the third degree and grand larceny in the fourth degree.
According to the charges:
On May 7, at approximately 2:30 a.m., video surveillance footage shows defendant Colon and another un-apprehended man emerging from a Ford Taurus at Siach Yitzchok, a religious school located at 10-45 Beach 9th St. in Far Rockaway.
Photo Courtesy of Google
The safe was pilfered from Siach Yitzchok yeshiva in Far Rockaway.
Colon and the other individual used a hand truck to remove a locked safe from the school office and loaded it into the car, and then left the area.
Several hours later, a school administrator discovered that the safe, which contained the Torah, was missing and called the police.
After an extensive investigation, the NYPD arrested Colon in August and located the safe in a wooded area near the Van Wyck Expressway in Kew Gardens Hills. The water-damaged Torah scroll was found inside the safe and returned to the family that had originally donated the Torah to the school.
“For the yeshiva, this Torah was priceless and could never be replaced. 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. This is an ongoing investigation, and we ask anyone with any information about the second suspect to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.”
If convicted, Colon faces a potential maximum sentence of 7½ years to 15 years in prison.
