Screams for assistance were heard on Petach Tikvah’s Sokolov Street one morning last week during the predawn hours. A resident of the street who heard the screams ran outside and say a woman chasing a man while shouting “stop”, then shouting to the resident she was mugged by the man who was fleeing the area.

The man chased the attacked down, leading to his arrest. The suspect is a resident of the Israeli Arab municipality of Kfar Kassam. The victim, a 30-year-old woman, explained the man attacked her, dragged her into an alley, and then robbed her of money and her smartphone.

Police investigators have since connected the suspect to another violent mugging in Petach Tikvah as well.

The police investigators also found that the suspect had objects (a cell phone and a debit card) that did not belong to him but a Petach Tikvah woman, and that a few hours before he was arrested for the first incident, the suspect grabbed her bag while sitting on a bench in the center of the city. The same complainant, a 60-year-old woman from Petach Tikvah did not come to complain immediately at the police station because of her health condition.

After the police investigators managed to charge the suspect with public disorder, the mugging and to the robbery, the suspect’s detention was extended from time to time by the Petach Tikvah Magistrate Court.

An indictment is being filed and the suspect was ordered held without bail pending the outcome of his trial.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)