Chabad Center in Bakersfield, CA Broken Into, Items Worth Thousands of Dollars Stolen

The Bakersfield Police Department is searching for a man accused of breaking glass and stealing several valuable items, costing thousands, at the Chabad of Bakersfield, California.

“I was devastated to come to our beautiful synagogue and find it completely desecrated,” Chabad of Bakersfield wrote on its Facebook page. “As you can see from pictures and videos an individual broke into the synagogue and walked away with many electronic devices, Samsung tablets, our credit card machines, microphone equipment, charity boxes and thousands of dollars worth of merchandise and jewelry from our Judaica store.”

For the Shliach, Rabbi Shmuel Schlanger, the most important thing was that the Sifrei Torah were safe, and only replaceable items were taken.

The break in happened at about 7:25am Monday with the burglar scaling a nine foot wall and smashing through the Chabad Centers front glass doors.

“We hope to file an insurance claim for the loss of the goods however we have cleaning up to do and replacement doors and locks immediately,” Rabbi Schlanger wrote. “Would you be so kind to help us with a donation to bring honor and glory back to our synagogue.”

According to reports, the suspect is a man in his thirties who has brown hair, and was wearing a plaid jacket and blue jeans during the theft.

Rabbi Schlanger spoke to the local news outlets after the incident and stressed that the burglary was simply a crime of opportunity and was not a hate crime targeting the Jewish community.

Anyone with information to help with the ongoing investigation is asked to call Detective R. Garcia at 661-326-3555 or the BPD at 661-327-7111.

Residents can help Chabad recover costs by donating here: www.chabadofbakersfield.com/donate