update deskU.S. News

Torah scroll stolen from New York City yeshivah returned to owners

Burglars took a safe that contained the sacred object, estimated at $50,000.

Covers for Torah scrolls at the Achim Chai factory in Petach Tikvah, Israel, on Feb. 14, 2023. Photo by David Cohen/Flash90.
Covers for Torah scrolls at the Achim Chai factory in Petach Tikvah, Israel, on Feb. 14, 2023. Photo by David Cohen/Flash90.

A Torah scroll, locked in a safe, stolen months ago from a yeshivah in Queens, N.Y., has been returned to the family that donated it.

Documents provided by the New York City Police Department stated that officers arrested Saul Colon, 37, on Aug. 2. He was charged with burglary in the third degree. An unnamed accomplice remains at large.

Colon confessed to the crime and led investigators to the location of the safe, with the Torah inside, in a wooded area in the New York City borough. The religious item suffered some water damage.

Additional charges Colon received include grand larceny in the second degree and grand larceny in the fourth degree. He faces between seven-and-a-half to 15 years in prison.

The New York Post reported the value of the scroll at more than $50,000.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that her office and the NYPD “never gave up on this case and, several months later, we arrested one of the suspects and were able to recover the Torah.”

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