CROWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A group of teens pushed into a Kosher butcher shop in Brooklyn Saturday night, knocking over shelves and allegedly punching a man in the head.
Surveillance camera footage from the incident shows about 20 teens gathering outside Gourmet Butcher Shop in Crown Heights around 9 p.m. Saturday night. At least two teens rushed into the store, pulling items off the counter and knocking over shelves.
According to CrownHeights.info, which released the surveillance footage, the teens also trespassed onto parked school buses and vandalized parked cars.
"They just started to take everything, slamming everything and whatever they could take down from the shelves in the entrance of the store," an employee said.
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A customer grabbed a broom, apparently in an attempt to fight off the teens, who ran off.
Yanki Klein said the incident occurred just a few hours after he had reopened his store, which had been closed for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
"They screamed, they yelled, they made noise, whatever," he said.
Klein has filed a police report for the vandalism and allegedly assaulting his 23-year-old brother, and while investigators are looking into the incident, no arrests have been made.
While Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said there was "no excuse" for the teens' behavior, he also said the blame was partially on the community.
"We're asking, what's wrong with them?" he said. "The question is: what's wrong with us that we created an environment where our teens can't find a place where they can gather?"
But Klein said the incident is only the latest in a series of incidents in his store -- and that police have ignored his concerns.
"These kinds of kids come by my store and yell 'heil Hitler,' or steal things that are on shelves near the door," he said.
"I've asked the police to put an officer on my corner many times, but I feel like I am being ignored and these 'minor' problems keep happening," he continued. "And now this. It is a miracle that they did not manage to get all the way into the store, otherwise I would have been dealing with much more damage or worse, heaven forbid."
