— Police in Nassau County, Long Island, have arrested three Queens, New York men believed responsible for the theft of an estimated $250,000 in silver ornaments from synagogues on Long Island, upstate New York, Connecticut and Florida.
Detective Harvey Goldberg, of the Nassau County Police Department’s burglary unit identified the three as Benji Diskin, 24; Larry Work, and Douglas Srour, 17, all of the Bayside section of Queens.
Goldberg told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he first became aware of the burglaries when a temple in Roslyn was burglarized. He said eventually eight synagogues on Long Island were burglarized by the thieves who stole silver ornaments from the arks.
He said Diskin was arrested first and then Wank. Srour was brought down from Rockland County, N.Y. where he had been arrested. All were linked to the robberies through fingerprints, Goldberg said.
He said the three are believed to also have robbed synagogues in Monroe, Goshen, Florida and Middletown, all in New York; Norwalk, Conn.; and Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island. In addition, Diskin was arrested in Sunrise, Florida, for robbing a temple there, Goldberg said.
Working with Goldberg on the case were Detectives Robert Steinman and John Pagnotta. He said that a great deal of information came from Jerry Storch, a special investigator with the New York State Police, who began working on the case after the temple of which he was a member in upstate New York was robbed.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
