York Regional Police are asking for the public’s help to find a suspect that broke into three Jewish businesses, including a pizzeria, during Passover.
The break-ins happened overnight between April 18 and 19 in the Thornhill neighbourhood within Vaughan, according to police.
It’s being called an attempt to “intimidate and target” the Jewish community by Thornill MP Melissa Lantsman.
“My grandfather started one of these businesses when he came to Canada to give us a better life. Today this country is unrecognizable,” she said in the post.
My Zaidy’s Pizza, one of the businesses broken into, said that the community has been supportive.
Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca also commented on the X platform following the break-ins.
Three businesses had glass on their front doors smashed, which is how the suspect gained entry to the shops, according to police.
“At this time, based on the evidence, investigators do not believe these incidents to be hate-motivated,” police said.
The suspect is believed to have targeted cash registers in “crimes of opportunity.”
The businesses were along the same row in the plaza in close proximity to each other, police said.
The suspect has been described as man with an average build. He was last seen wearing a dark hoodie under a dark coloured jacket with a pink and red floral pattern on the right shoulder. The jacket also appeared to have two stripes around both biceps and white stripes along the edge of the jacket’s collar, police said. The man was also wearing a face covering.
In the video, a single individual is seen getting out of a white vehicle and looking around before heading to the doors of the shopping plaza. The suspect enters a store by smashing a glass door, goes toward the shop counter, picks up the cash register, and takes it out the door.
The suspect was carrying a stick, which was used to smash the glass at the businesses.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact York Regional Police at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 7244, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
