A 78-year-old woman from Kiryat Eliezer in Haifa was injured on Thursday morning, around 9:00 a.m., after what her family says was a robbery near her home. According to the family, she had gone shopping near the Lin Center and was walking back when two young men followed her, one wearing a white shirt and the other a black shirt.
The family says the suspects trailed her from inside the store, waited outside, and continued following her home. Near her residence, one of them allegedly lunged at her, grabbed her bag hard, and knocked her to the ground. Her granddaughter, Tali, said the grandmother was pushed, fell, and suffered bruises across one side of her body. The bag reportedly contained a mobile phone, credit cards, an ID card and other personal documents, and it has not yet been found.
Tali said the family received little meaningful update from police, so they began searching themselves. She said they collected security camera footage along the route, identified the suspect, and spread his photo on social media. “I started publishing his face everywhere I could,” she said, adding that people contacted her overnight after recognizing him and gave her his name and details.
After she reached the suspect’s parents, the mother said she and her son would go to the police the next day. Tali also received a message from the father, who wrote, “Tonight is a dark night for me. I found out my son is a criminal, he destroyed our lives and his own.” He added, “I am the father of the boy who was published on Facebook as having attacked the elderly woman and robbed her,” and said, “We will do everything we can. Right now we cannot find him.” Tali said, “We did the police’s work.” Police responded that, contrary to the family’s claim, a probe was opened immediately after the report and investigators are carrying out intensive steps, including collecting evidence and retrieving security footage from the scene.
