Yesterday when one of my girls arrived home mid day she noticed a large square shaped rock, almost like a brick, with a big blue dot painted on it laying on our porch step as she neared the walkway.
We’ve never seen this rock before which seemed to have been intentionally placed there.
If this had been 3 weeks ago or more, my mind would not have wandered to where it did. But being Jewish right now and witnessing the unspeakable horrors going on in Israel, along with the increasing escalation of hate crimes and antisemitism in our city, this suddenly felt personal and quite scary.
With our fears and anxiety mounting, Rich and I decided to take a walk around our neighborhood after dinner, particularly to our surrounding Jewish neighbour’s homes who face our house; all of whom have cameras (our home is actually on a corner lot so we had several options).
Unfortunately we do not have cameras installed outside our home, but that is all about to change, as Rich ordered one immediately following the incident and we are just waiting for our Electrician son to come by to install it for us!
One of our kind neighbours immediately pulled up the footage from the day on his phone and we were able to see that there was a truck situated near our home in the late morning hours. We could tell it was some type of city truck but it was difficult to read the wording on it.
When we got back home I called our city’s emergency after hours hotline and explained the situation, hoping to put our minds at ease. The young man on the phone told me that even if it were city trucks out marking watermains or cleaning sewers they would not do so on a brick and then leave it on our steps.
That’s not what I needed to hear.
Blue is the standard colour code used for marking areas around sewers and watermains but are usually drawn as lines on the grass or with arrows pointing to a specific area near to the watermains or sewers. This was neither. Instead it was a big blue dot randomly placed on a rock which just so happens to also be the exact same colour blue that represents Israel.
We called the non-emergency police unit after my call to the city to once again try and put my mind at ease. They came to our home late last night. They told us that there was nothing they could do and asked us to report to them anytime if we witness any other suspicious behaviors or if we notice something happening in the moment so they can send out a patrol car and hopefully catch someone in the act. They also told us to get a camera installed as soon as possible. I only wish we’d had cameras outside our home yesterday as we could’ve had a direct view and not one that was blocked by a truck.
But either way and whether or not this was just an innocent misunderstanding by city workers (which we are still looking into) or if it was possibly an intimidation tactic on someone’s part, or my paranoia, the one thing we must all do right now is to stay super vigilant and alert of ours and our neighbour’s surroundings.
And please remember, if you see something, say something no matter how big or small you may think it may seem.
Am Yisrael Chai
*Update…our city council reps did their own investigating after I’d written this blog and sent me a message. We also reported the incident to the Jewish Federation security.
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YouAreEnough 