A Brooklyn man was arrested earlier this month and accused of stealing crates full of quality fromage, possibly for years, from a kosher food store in Midwood and then selling the goods to neighboring stores. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling cameras! more ›

Police are investigating a rash of weekend hate crimes in Midwood, Brooklyn, where swastikas were spray painted on three buildings, along with the words "Die Jews" on a garage door. The garage door vandalism occurred at a private residence located 100 feet away Assemblyman Dov Hikind's home, and the politician says the latest outburst of anti-Semitism has local residents increasingly alarmed. Midwood has one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors in America, and Hikind says, "You wouldn't believe the comments that I hear. 'Does this mean something? Is this the beginning of something?' I tell them no because this is America." more ›

Pizza and waiting-forever-for-pizza lovers, rejoice! Di Fara pizzeria in Midwood has officially re-opened, following a nasty little spat with the Health Department over some less-than-savory conditions in the legendary restaurant. more ›

With Friday's burnt cars and anti-Semitic scrawls still fresh in their memory, Midwood community members and politicians took to the streets yesterday to make clear that they won't be standing for such attacks. "I feel wrong if I don't come and do something, it's Jews, you come out, we may not know them but we're all one, we're all together," explained one resident of the heavily Jewish stretch of Ocean Parkway. And while police have still made no arrests in the presumed hate crime, they have high hopes of getting DNA or fingerprints off the myriad bottles and gas containers left at the scene. more ›

Yesterday morning in Midwood, on the anniversary of the end of Kristallnacht, vandals torched three cars, tried to burn a fourth, and scrawled anti-semitic graffiti on a nearby van and benches. The attack took place around 5:30 a.m. in the heavily Orthodox Jewish section of Ocean Parkway. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, along with 66th NYPD Police Precinct, are currently investigating the vandalism as a hate crime. “I think it’s a jealousy of wealth, and then the use of anti-Semitism as a way to express that jealousy,” Bobby Tebeli, whose mother’s BMW X5 was burned, told the Post. more ›

A neighborly fight essentially over a bush in Brooklyn has metastasized into a million-dollar federal lawsuit. And if that weren't cute enough, yesterday 89-year-old Federal Judge Jack Weinstein even toured the disputed strip of land in Midwood, which one neighbor says their family has been maintaining for forty years and another neighbor says they bought fair and square in 2007. more ›

The Sanitation Department is still getting reamed over toppling gravestones at Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn. Trucks apparently were piling up snow into big mountains, but the mounds were so huge, the snow fell against a fence, which then buckled under the weight and collapsed into gravestones. One man whose aunt is buried there was irate, telling WCBS 2 that workers had to immediately dig out the gravestones, before he had to break the bad news to a relative, “How do you tell a 91-year-old woman that her sister’s grave was destroyed? What do you say?” more ›

Yesterday at 7:30 a.m., a carbon monoxide detector sounded in a Midwood apartment building. A tenant told the Daily News, "When I got up, I was dizzy," and it turns out there were "130 parts per million of carbon monoxide in the air... The FDNY evacuates buildings when carbon monoxide levels are more than 10 parts per million." The cause? A faulty basement boiler, which was turned on by the super at 6 a.m.; luckily, no one was hurt. Make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector (and make sure the batteries work) and follow these tips from the FDNY. more ›

The unidentified NYPD police officer that slapped Rabbi Sholom Emert with a jaywalking ticket on Shabbos has now been transferred to a less Jewish Orthodox community, reports the Flatbush Scoop. The ticket was handed over in the Midwood section of Brooklyn on November 26th, and Emert said the officer was rude when he busted him. Specifically, he made him write his own name down—thus forcing him to violate Jewish law on the Sabbath, lest he end up in the station. more ›

On Friday, it was reported that a Brooklyn Rabbi and three of his sons were suspected of sexually abusing four female relatives. One of those sons, Yechezkel Kranczer, 24, was arraigned on charges of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child in Brooklyn Criminal Court yesterday. more ›

Our favorite Kansans are coming back to Brooklyn this Monday! No, not Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh, whose indelible prog rock riffs carried "Carry On My Wayward Son" and "Dust In The Wind" to the uppermost reaches of the charts—The Westboro Baptist Church, who are making their annual Jew-hating sojourn as part of their "Godsmack Tour." The only question: will Limp Bizkit be opening for them, or will they be opening for Limp Bizkit? more ›

The 16-year-old driver who crashed into a car, tree, fence and house, killing a 13-year-old passenger will be charged as an adult. Eric Hakimisefat only had a junior license, which does not allow him to drive without an adult, when he was driving in the Midwood section of Brooklyn on Sunday. It's believed he was going around 63 mph in the 30 mph zone. more ›

An underage driver was charged with criminally negligent homicide after he crashed a van into a parked car, a tree and a house, killing his 13-year-old back-seat passenger. Eric Hakimisefat, 16, who only has a junior license, which prohibits him from driving without a parent or guardian, had been speeding in the Midwood section of Brooklyn—he was allegedly going over 60 mph in a 30-mph zone. more ›

On Wednesday night, a three-alarm fire tore through a two-family home in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, killing an 8-year-old boy and leaving his five siblings injured. While it was initially suspected the fire may have been started by holiday candles, now the focus is on a hot plate. The Daily News reports, "Fire marshals were exploring whether a hot plate - left plugged in to warm food during the holiday - sparked the three-alarm blaze, sources said." more ›

Last night, an 8-year-old boy died after a fire broke out on the third floor of a two-family house in Midwood, at Avenue P and Coney Island Avenue. The boy's five siblings, ages 1 to 10, were injured in the blaze which apparently started from holiday candles—according to the Daily News, the children were inside the house while their parents "were eating dinner outside in a tent for the Simchat Torah holiday when they were startled by their children's cries for help." A witness said, "The children were screaming. The parents heard them, but it was too late." more ›

According to those who knew him, Yosef Robinson, the hip hop artist turned Orthodox Jews who was fatally shot during a liquor store robbery, inspired many people with his faith. One friend told the Daily News, "I would look at him and say, 'Yoseph, how can you be black and be Jewish?' And Yoseph would just look at me with this big smile and say, 'It's not about color, it's about faith.'" His employer at MB Vineyards wine shop in Brooklyn said, "He was a guy that changed his life around. This is the kind of guy we should all emulate." more ›

A contractor working for the MTA was crushed to death yesterday morning while unloading metal panels at the Q train Avenue M station. An NYC Transit spokesman told the Post that Richard Lang was "untying the load of panels when the load shifted" underneath him. He reportedly jumped down, but the load fell on top of him when he hit the ground. A witness said, "He climbed on top of the panels. They were unsteady, and it looked like they didn't tie them." more ›

Two girls in 7th grade sustained non-life threatening injuries after getting hit by a deranged delivery truck thief in Marine Park yesterday. The unidentified, under-dressed man was attired in just black underwear and a filthy white shirt; he was not carrying ID when police finally apprehended him after his destructive joyride. The Daily News reports that before stealing the delivery truck, the man was seen in Midwood "munching on leaves straight from tree branches and menacing kids with a garden hose." Which sounds like your average fun Thursday afternoon in your skivvies, but then things turned criminal. more ›

Three women were hit and killed by cars today in isolated incidents in Manhattan and Brooklyn. A female cyclist was struck by a school bus near the corner of Delancey and Ludlow streets in the Lower East Side at around 4 pm, according to the Post. The tabloid reports that the bus was empty, while ABC notes that the vehicle belonged to the bus company Atlantic Express and was carrying two children at the time. more ›

Thieves with screwdrivers broke into a Midwood home, locked two children and a housekeeper in the bathroom, and stole the family's 2010 Ferrari, according to police. The perps broke into the house — which is near East Seventh Street and Quentin Road — through a side door yesterday at around 7 pm and encountered a 12-year-old girl doing homework in the basement. "My sister thought they were firemen, and she led them to me," 17-year-old victim Isaac Douek told the Daily News. more ›

Brooklyn's James Madison High School is turning out to be a hotbed of Sex Ed. Yesterday it was reported that two female teachers were caught naked in a classroom together by a seemingly unopportunistic janitor — however, the Post now says that the janitor thought the teachers were students! (So really he was just being smart by not getting involved.) Meanwhile, there's now a third female being investigated. Allison Musacchio didn't share her colleagues interest in experimentation however, she went straight for the cliched-yet-still-scandalous teacher-student hook-up. more ›

A tipster spotted this truck stuck under the Q train subway station on Avenue J in Midwood this morning around 8:45 a.m. We're told "the truck was all crumpled and the fire department had to come out." We're guessing at this point they're just waiting for a giant stick of butter. more ›

A 21-year-old Brooklyn man convicted of kidnapping a young girl was sentenced today to 10 years in prison despite his pleas for "mercy and leniency." Bernard Mutterperl wept before a judge, pleading that he needed help "outside of jail" as punishment for the Mother's Day 2007 incident in Midwood where he followed Xochil Garcia home and grabbed the girl, who was then 11. But the judge fell on the more stringent side of sentencing that could have fallen anywhere from 3 1/2 to 15 years. Garcia, now 13, testified at the trial this spring and spoke again in court today, recounting how she has suffered panic attacks and feared going out alone. She looked at Mutterperl and said, "You messed up my life. Some people want to fight me for no reason. Some people want to be my friend so they can be on TV ... I do not have any real friends now because of this." more ›