West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills police investigating 'hate-based' incident against Jewish people

Residents in both West Bloomfield and Farmington Hills woke up to plastic bags filled with virulent anti-Semitic material having been tossed on their lawns overnight Oct. 4 into Oct 5.

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Residents in both West Bloomfield Township and Farmington Hills woke up to plastic bags filled with virulent antisemitic material having been tossed on their lawns overnight Oct. 4 into Oct 5.

"The timing of this detestable activity exacerbates the chilling effect on our community," said Farmington Hills Police Chief Jeff King. "This type of hateful activity will not be tolerated in Farmington Hills and our agency will use all available resources to prevent, investigate, and prosecute those responsible for this incident."

The Farmington Hills Police Department responded to the area of 14 Mile and Farmington where neighbors found bags with antisemitic fliers, and some type of pellets tossed on their properties.

"Ya know you open it and it doesn't have anything good to say. It’s blatantly anti-Semitic," Leonard Weiss said.

Weiss and his wife Deborah were two of the residents who had the bags dropped on their property.

"It’s terrifying it’s frightening, I feel like we need to protect ourselves," Deborah Weiss said."

In West Bloomfield Township, there were more than 100 houses that found the same.

Pellets inside the bags are thought non-hazardous. (Photo by Coulter Mitchell)

Police initially responded to the 4800 block of Pelican Way where the residents reported finding a Ziploc bag full of fliers containing anti-Jewish rhetoric in their driveways.

The initial investigation revealed that over 100 households in the neighborhood received similar materials on their driveways overnight. A resident in the area captured security camera footage of an unknown dark-colored pickup truck driving in the neighborhood around 11:45 pm the previous night, Friday, October 4, 2024. However, it is currently unclear if the truck is connected to this incident.

The West Bloomfield Police Department strongly condemns hate of any kind and is actively investigating this situation as a case of ethnic intimidation, a release from the department said.