Vandals Trash Upper West Side Deli, Scrawl Anti-Semitic Graffiti on Walls, “Urinate Everywhere”
by Algemeiner Staff
Lansky’s Old World Deli on Manhattan’s Upper West Side will reopen on Saturday morning after thieves broke into the restaurant earlier this week,vandalized the inside and wrote anti-Semitic slurs on the walls.
“We’ll be open tomorrow morning,” an employee told The Algemeiner, adding that the deli is still in the process of cleaning up the mess.
“We’re fixing things up now,” she said.
David Ruggerio, the delis owner, said the extent of the damage inside was severe.
“They smashed all the computers, smashed phones, broke every plate in the place, sliced every banquette,” he told The New York Post. “It was like someone came in and went wilding. Vandalism is one thing, but it was a total defacement. They urinated everywhere.”
Ruggerio, who isn’t Jewish himself, says he covered up the anti-Semitic words and symbols in order to keep the situation from becoming “inflamed”.
“I’m an Italian-American from Brooklyn, but if I was Jewish, I’d be deeply offended,” he told The Post.