In his press conference announcing the capture of the murder Levi Aron, and the gruesome discovery of Leiby A”H’s body, Police Commissioner Kelly acknowledged publicly the Shomrim Patrol for providing a license plate number that led them to Levi. How did the Shomrim receive the information? As it turns out it was supplied by Flatbush brothers, who watched the news and saw footage of the car on YWN and spotted it several minutes later.
The Brothers actually hesitated for a while if they really saw that car, but the Hashgacha led them to encounter and show the photos to several active Askunim who were in close contact with BP Shomrim Coordinator Simcha Bernath. The immediately called Simcha, who had Shomrim take down the plate number, and in about 15 minutes the police were at the murder’s house. The Yiddish weekly Der Yid runs a firsthand account of one of the bucherim, Baruch T., a Flatbush Yeshiva Bucher. The following are some excerpts:
I watched the video of the car where Leiby was lured into. My older brother and I decided to drive around and look for it… We drove several blocks, and on East 3rd St. we saw a car somewhat similar to the car on the video… We took some photos and a video of the car with our phone. We parked to watch for other cars. We haven’t seen that car passing us.
Afterwards we drove back to East 2nd St., between Cortelyou Rd. and Ave. C, and we were surprised to see the exact same car on East 2nd. These are one-way streets, and the car would have to pass us. We went out, and confirmed that it’s the same license plate number. “How did he arrive to E 2nd without us seeing him passing by?” we wondered.
We returned to the car and got nervous. It didn’t feel right: I saw the guy standing in front of his house, and for a second he stared back. His cab was similar to the dashik (a Yiddish term for the type of flat-brimmed hat that Levi sported) on the video. His figure also looked similar. He looked nervous. He parked in front of his house and it looked like he’s entering the house…
My brother argued that it is just a co-incidence. “You want to be Dan Lkaf Zchus. You don’t want to cause problems to a person for nothing.”
We decided to proceed to the end of the block, where we stopped at a pump and waited to see if the car will pass us again. We waited several minutes, and decided to go back, but the car was not there anymore. It was funny where it is – maybe he parked in the driveway.
We called Shomrim and asked if the car model is a Honda, without sharing that we saw something. They responded that they don’t have the exact model. I was discouraged, and we decided to ignore it.
We wanted to return home, and looked for parking on our block. While trying to find a spot, we saw several Shomrim members (actually they where Der Yid staffers. one of them was Moshe Wolf Klein, who works close with Shomrim. During the search he was sent to pick up CCTV disks of interest, and drove the father around to check out possible leads on cameras.). They were in front of the Alesker Shul (Harav Ashkenazi’s Shul, on E 2 – Ave. F). “This was Hashgahcah Pratis (Divine providence).”
We approached them and showed the video. They looked at it, and called the Shomrim (Simcha Bernath directly). He asked for the license plates, and said that they will contact us if they need something. This call was made on 1:42 Wednesday AM.
Back home, I couldn’t fall asleep, and watched for news in the case. About 3:30 I saw that someone was arrested at that address where we saw the parked car. “I thought, OMG, he was it.”
Commissioner Kelly said that they approached the house about 2 am, based on the license plates provided by the Shomrim. (It seems that the information gleaned from the dentist wasn’t enough).
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11 Responses
The police said they got Levi Aron’s name and address after finding his dentist on the surveillance video.
They said they called his dentist at his NJ home to get the name and address.
Sorry, but they should’ve called the police immediately upon seeing the car.
whats the difference it was a day late and a dollar short.
While the boys did the right thing in the end, it is better to have reported something suspicious to the police immediately, let the police decide if is Dan Lkaf Zchus! Given that we are in Galus it is paramount to report anything that is out of the ordinary, whether it be a package, car, or anything we must be on our guard at all times. When recently in Israel a man saw a suspicious brief case he called the police and kept people away preventing a further tragedy, his gut instinct was right for the brief soon blew up a bus.
Go with gut instinct. These bochurim deserve a commendation for following through & not being afraid.
We wanted to return home, and looked for parking on our block. While trying to find a spot, we saw several Shomrim members (actually they where Der Yid staffers. one of them was Moshe Wolf Klein, who works close with Shomrim.
I am sick of everyone trying to take credit. Moshe Wolf Klein is a BSSP member. But Der Yid needs to spin it their way. Shomrim never said it was their credit, Kelly did.
Everything aside, why isn’t there an article about how shomrim organized the search and brought out 10,000 volunteers and in an organized fashion managed them. I personally know that the search coordinator did not sleep for days and was running everything from Monday 6:00pm until after the levaya and only then went to sleep. Not looking for photo ops, not rubbing shoulders with politicians and police bras. Being up for 60 hours looking for a child he never knew, now thats a story I want to read about.
Kudos to those who tracked and submitted the plate information. My comment is only on the hesitation to “not cause problems for someone for nothing.” It is OK to cause problems for someone in this sort of investigation. Those problems would not be “for nothing,” they would be part of the investigation. Thank G-d the boys handed over the information. G-d forbid if they had not. We need to encourage comfort that people should report to the police the things that are not right. Our gut instincts are correct for a reason.
People are getting upset for nothing. When someone sees something it’s always hard to imagine that what you had seen really was important.
Have we forgotten that Hashem runs the world and we all did our best? We didn’t find Leiby in time because that was Hashems Ratzon. Let’s stop the bickering, ACHDUS ACHDUS ACHDUS. Thant has to be our mantra.
Good job Burry and Shuey, there is nothing to be ashamed of. No, you couldn’t stop that monster from doing what he did but at least you helped catch him. I’m proud of you.
your older brother Moshe.