Image by YouTube

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Citing the facial hair and hat of a man suspected of stealing from a goldsmith, Dutch police said the unidentified suspect “may well be Jewish.”

The statement, which the head of the country’s leading watchdog on anti-Semitism said was making her feel “uneasy,” was published Thursday on the website of the national police about a November theft of gold worth $42,000 in Utrecht.

The same statementwas made also by a police officer who appeared Wednesday on a crime show on the RTV channel appealing for information about the suspect, who spoke German and presented himself to his alleged victim as “Benny.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The suspect met with the goldsmith in a café in Utrecht following an email exchange in which the suspect, who used a false identity, presented himself as a dealer in gold interested in buying large quantities of the metal. The goldsmith brought the gold to the café, where the suspect asked to inspect it in the restroom. But he exited the café through a service door with the 2.2 pounds of gold, the police website said.

Blurry security camera footage shows a man wearing jeans, a jacket and a hat walking out confidently of the café.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount