MIAMI (WSVN) - Menacing messages were left in the front yards of some South Florida homes, where residents find bags of antisemitic propaganda in their communities.
Richard Amundsen cuts right to the chase about what he found on his property: Papers of hate.
“Well, it’s anti-semitic filth,” said Amundsen. “Attacking Jewish senators and congressmen and other things like that. My God, they put a star of David on their heads. Every one of their heads.”
Originally from New York, Amundsen said he’s lived in Coral Gables for 20 years, but he’s never gotten a delivery like this one.
“I saw this type of filth in my youth with the people that survived the Holocaust. I didn’t think I’d see it at this age,” said Amundsen.
“Put my stuff in the back, got the littlest one over here in the car,” said Katherine Shehadeh.
A typical morning for Shehadeh, a Coral Gables mother. It was time to take her three and five year old to school.
“I could see something over here in the grass,” said Shehadeh.
Before driving out, she walked over to pick it up.
“It did look strange and then I pulled it up and I saw this,” said Shehadeh.
A sandwich bag, but with corn inside and an anti-Jewish printout spewing hate and false information.
“Every aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish,” said Shehadeh, as she read the paper.
Despite the unplanned morning reading, she had to get back to her kids, who were in the SUV.
“‘Mommy, what is that?’” said Shehadeh. “I’m just speechless.”
She called Coral Gables Police. Soon, a city employee would show up to try and pick up the flyer.
The hate papers were not only delivered in Coral Gables. They were also delivered elsewhere. A neighborhood in Brickell was also hit with antisemitic messages.
The incident happened near Southwest Fifth Avenue, Tuesday morning.
“I opened my gate and came across this,” said a neighbor.
This was not what this neighbor in the Roads area of Miami wanted to wake up to as he took his baby out for a stroll.
He did not want to identify himself as he felt uneasy after finding antisemitic messages in a ziplock bag weighed down by kernels of corn; hate right at his doorstep.
The vile messages also mentioned Disney and read “Disney is responsible for the child grooming.”
The neighbor does not know what time the suspects could have left the message, but he told 7News that other people in the neighborhood found them in their driveways as well.
Miami Police are investigating in the area.
“I was shocked, being a Jewish guy from New York, I’ve actually never experienced any level of hate like this,” said the neighbor.
Over the last year in South Florida, similar packages have been found at Miami Beach, Surfside, Coral Ridge and Boca Raton.
“It’s a hate crime, it’s a hate crime,” said the neighbor.
In January, the people who made these hateful flyers also blamed Jewish people for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Telling me everybody at the Center for Disease Control is Jewish,” said a bystander.
These messages are hateful and inaccurate. As for the residents at this neighborhood, they were left feeling uncomfortable.
“I don’t feel not safe but I feel a little concerned about what’s going to happen in the future in this neighborhood,” said the neighbor.
When it came to Coral Gables Tuesday, it was just as hateful and hurtful.
“This is really hateful,” said Amundsen.
Is it a crime? So far, police said no. It’s what Miami Beach Police said earlier this year and other municipalities across South Florida.
City of Miami Police are now investigating this incident and they said they’re also working with another agency in Coral Gables where these same type of messages were also found.
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