Man, 19, accused of burglarizing, defacing Chabad of Naples with anti-Semitic graffiti

Naples police on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of burglarizing a Jewish community center and defacing it with anti-Semitic graffiti last month. 

Michael J. Dami, 19, of East Naples, faces felony charges of burglary of a structure with damage in excess of $1,000; grand theft causing damage in excess of $1,000; and criminal mischief of a religious facility causing damage in excess of $200, according to an arrest report.

Police responded to the Chabad of Naples and Naples Preschool of the Arts in the 1700 block of Mandarin Road on Oct. 19 in reference to a burglary, the report states.

Chabad officials told police someone broke into the building between 7:20 p.m. Oct. 18 and 7 a.m. Oct. 19. Detectives also were notified that "10 Amazon gift cards, several blank bank checks, several checks made out to the school, and several credit and debit cards" were missing from an office at the center, according to the report.

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Video surveillance showed a man entering the property shortly before midnight Oct. 18 and "slowly pulling on door handles to the Chabad Jewish Center and classrooms of Naples Preschool of the Arts," the report states.

The man then can be seen opening the door to the assistant of the director's office and later leaving the office with "something in his hand," according to the report.

Detectives found the assistant director's office "in complete disarray," the report states.

Detectives said a fire extinguisher had been taken from the wall and was lying on the floor "with large amounts of papers, files, and personal property thrown everywhere."

Police found broken picture frames, glass and papers on the floor throughout the office, and the "glass pane closest to the door handle had been smashed out," the report states. 

Four large flat-screen televisions for the security camera systems had been smashed and broken, and the computer on the director's desk had been damaged and thrown to the floor, according to the report.

"The suspect totally trashed the inside of the director's office and the interior of the business," said Lt. Seth Finman, a Naples police spokesman.

On a glass window between the director's office and the assistant's office, detectives found someone had written "! YOU JEWS NEVER! LEARN!! HEIL HITLER!" with red lipstick, the report states. In the lower left corner of the window a swastika had been drawn, they said.

The cost of damage to the property in the building totaled about $6,000, police said. 

On Nov. 13, police said, they received information from the Collier County Sheriff's Office about a man arrested on an unrelated active warrant.

Dami was named in an active Collier warrant alleging contempt and was arrested Oct. 19, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

He was carrying a backpack containing two credit cards and seven checks belonging to the Chabad and preschool, totaling more than $12,000, police said.

"The State Attorney's Office will take a look at the booking sheet and decide whether any of these felony charges will be enhanced, because of a potential hate crime situation," Finman said.

A spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office said in an email Thursday that after prosecutors receive the entire case file and review it, they will determine what charges are appropriate. 

Whether the burglary and vandalism were premeditated was hard to say, Finman said.

"There's definitely an element of crime of opportunity, because there was a door left unsecured," he said. "At the same time, the anti-Semitic remarks that were left inside are kind of a different aspect, which kind of go against the crime of opportunity."

Finman said he couldn't remember the last time Naples had an incident that could be considered a hate crime.

"It definitely is not a usual occurrence," he said.

In an emailed statement to the Daily News, Rabbi Fishel Zaklos from Chabad of Naples thanked law enforcement officers and public officials "for their strong and supportive response" to the incident and emphasized that "none of our community's private or confidential information was compromised at any point."

Zaklos wrote that they were grateful that all of the lost property is replaceable. He also thanked the community for its outpouring of support.

"Our response to any negative incidents will always be to spread even more light and more love to those around us, and we hope that this message will inspire every member of our community to increase in acts of goodness and kindness to their fellow man," the statement read.

"While this recent event is upsetting both in its violating nature and in its anti-Semitic undertones, we choose to respond with strength and resilience."