A woman tried to walk off with an unattended toddler in 770, the world headquarters of the Chabad movement, before being caught and arrested by police.
Authorities said that the 18-month old was left unattended by her 26-year old mother when an unidentified woman snatched the baby and started to run off. The baby's mother realized what was going on and called for help, spurring passersby to stop the woman. Police arrested the perpetrator, whom they suspect has a mental illness.
The attempted kidnapping comes amongst a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in Crown Heights. Last Saturday, a boy was attacked by thugs next to 770 on his way home from Shabbat prayers.
As he made his way home, the victim was suddenly assaulted by a group of seven or eight African-American youths, with no apparent provocation.
The boy’s father said he spotted the assailants moments before they attacked, and was able to avoid serious injury to his son.
“My son said that he understood something was going to happen and as he was thinking about what he should do, when they suddenly pounced with one of them slapping him so hard that he fell to the ground, while a second one was hitting him in the head,” the boy’s father told Crown Heights Info.
On the Thursday before that, a pair of Jewish girls were viciously attacked by a woman in Crown Heights after she found out they were Jewish. The woman also punched a hassidic man who tried to intervene and help the girls.
In late September, a legally blind Orthodox Jewish woman was attacked by locals in Crown Heights. The 62-year-old woman was verbally harassed with offensive, anti-Semitic language by the assailant, who then pulled off the woman’s wig before escaping.