Ring doorbell camera captures stranger's antisemitic tirade toward Jewish family
A man was recorded making antisemitic slurs on an Ohio family's doorbell camera about a week after they put an Israeli flag on their lawn to show support for the embattled country.
An Ohio man was taken into custody on Monday after making antisemitic slurs toward two families with Israeli flags displayed on their lawns.
Jacob Reidy, 39, was recorded on a Ring doorbell camera by one of the families before being arrested on charges related to criminal trespassing, according to the Bexley Police Department.
"I was so shaken up that I had to call the police right away because I wanted them to get here as fast as they could and be able to find him," Bexley, Ohio, resident Debbie Meyer told Fox News.
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The incident occurred just a day after FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of a spike in domestic threats linked to Israel's war against Hamas that began after the terrorist organization's brutal Oct. 7 attack. More than 1,400 Israelis have died since the war began and at least 150 adults and children have been taken hostage into Gaza, according to the Israeli government. About 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Meyer said she was home with her husband, who was watching a football game, on Sunday when the doorbell rang. She decided not to go to the door because she thought the man looked suspicious.
"Hey, can I help you?" Meyer says to the man through her Ring doorbell camera.
"Hello?" the man asks. "Do I just talk into this? I’ve never used one of these," he says, leaning toward the Ring doorbell.
"Yeah, go ahead, what can I help you with, sir?" Meyer replies.
"You Zionist pigs are f---ing disgusting," the man says before the footage is cut off as Meyer exits the app to call police.
The police department said it is investigating the incident with state and federal authorities.
A man was caught saying antisemitic slurs over a Ring doorbell to a family with an Israeli flag on their lawn. (Debbie Meyer)
"The Department is in constant communication with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and working closely on this and potential matters which may occur subsequent to last week’s attacks," a statement obtained by Fox News reads.
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"We encourage everyone that if they see something, say something and report it immediately to aid us in our efforts," the statement continues.
Reidy – who has no criminal history – was spotted last Saturday as he shouted slurs from his car outside a synagogue, according a police spokesperson.
Police also said that Reidy went to another house a block away and made similar antisemitic insults, calling a family "dirty Zionists" and telling them that he "wished they would die," according to the police spokesperson.
"They told him to get off the property," said Meyer, who is familiar with the other family. "Then he laughed like he did when he left my house and walked down the driveway, got in his car and drove away – like no worries in the world."
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The mother of three said she put the Israeli flag on her lawn to show her solidarity for Israel in its ongoing war against the terrorist organization Hamas.
"When you’re in America, many share their support through donations, acts of kindness and prayer, and for me, to put that flag up there was my way of supporting Israel," she said. "I knew in my heart deep down that anytime you put an Israeli flag up you take a chance because of people who are out there who are antisemitic and hate Jews."
Meyer, whose mother was a Holocaust survivor, said the incident deeply upset her family.
Debbie Meyer says her mother, who died in 1989, was a Holocaust survivor who hid in a forest in Poland for three years. Pictured here is Meyer's mother, Rita Katz Hoffman, as a child in Europe and as an adult living in the U.S. (Debbie Meyer)
"I am the child of a survivor of the Holocaust, so this hits home for me on so many different levels," she said. "So, I take the barbaric acts committed against Israel and my family and friends over there very personally."
The Meyer family has no plans to remove the flag.
"It’s not coming down," Meyer said. "That flag is staying up."