Police: Two men preyed on elderly TA couples, in over 20 burglaries

Cops make the arrest after spotting the two leaving an apartment in the Bavli neighborhood of Tel Aviv.

By BEN HARTMAN
Police car in Tel Aviv at night 311 (photo credit: Yoni Cohen)
Police car in Tel Aviv at night 311
(photo credit: Yoni Cohen)
Police believe that two men from Rishon Lezion carried out dozens of burglaries of elderly couples in the Tel Aviv area in recent months, using the same method to get the victims to leave their homes, after which they duplicated keys and returned later to rob them.
The two men, Dekel Cohen, 26, and Eliyahu Aviad, 23, were arrested on Monday when they were spotted by police leaving an apartment in the Bavli neighborhood of northern Tel Aviv.
The police, who had been on surveillance at the site of previous robberies, gave chase and found Cohen carrying a bag with jewelry. They said that in one of Aviad’s hands was a duplicate key to one of the apartments in the building.
Authorities are trying to see if they can tie the men to over 20 other burglaries, and in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday they sought to prove that the men repeatedly used the same method.
Though they were reluctant to give up details in court, police said later that the two men used a number of methods to get senior citizens out of their homes, after which they would duplicate the house key and return later to burglarize the premises when the occupants were out.
To initially get the residents out of the house, the men allegedly called them and said they had a package waiting at the post office, or posed as delivery men and asked to be buzzed in to the building.
On at least one occasion they allegedly followed an elderly woman in a supermarket and took her key out of the shopping cart, made a mold of it and then followed her home to see where she lived. Days later, they returned when she was out and robbed her.
The men are also accused of taking part in a robbery in which an elderly woman was assaulted after walking in on them. In court it emerged that the woman had not been able to positively identify the suspects.
On Tuesday the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ordered Cohen and Aviad’s remand extended by an additional five days, and not the 11 days sought by police.