Robbers ‘Dressed Like Haredis’ Clean Out Jewish Jeweler in France
Armed robbers reportedly “dressed like haredis” ripped off a Jewish jeweler in France before releasing toxic gas in the air.
Four men approached the jeweler near his Marseille shop on Wednesday morning, the news site La Depeche reported. Two were “dressed like haredis,” according to the French news agency AFP, and two wore masks. At least one of the robbers was toting an AK-47 assault rifle, AFP reported.
The men kidnapped the jeweler, who was not named, and forced him to open his shop. After the robbery they released a gas that caused “skin irritation and breathing difficulties” to about 30 residents of nearby apartments, La Depeche reported.
Residents called the police to report the gas as the suspects drove away, taking the Jewish jeweler with them as a hostage. They left the jeweler unharmed inside the car on a freeway outside Marseille, took another car and drove away.
A Scene from the Film ‘Snatch’
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
