Police release video of suspects after anti-Semitic graffiti spray painted on Vaughan home

York regional police have released surveillance video of two suspects investigators believe are responsible for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti on a home in the Thornhill Woods community of Vaughan last Friday night.

Police believe the graffiti was spray-painted just before 10 p.m. at a home on Stratheden Lane in the predominantly Jewish suburb near Dufferin Street and Major Mackenzie Drive.

Surveillance video captured from a nearby home shows two suspects walking down the middle of the street towards the house before the incident, and then walking away a few minutes later.

Both suspects are male, wearing dark clothing.

Police are hoping someone recognizes them and reaches out to investigators.

Andrew Sefton, the owner of the home that was vandalized, told CityNews that he and his two sons came home from Shabbat dinner and found the hateful and threatening language spray-painted on the garage doors.

The scrawls in red included a swastika and the words “watch ur self” and “we watch.”

“It’s more than just graffiti,” he said. “The swastika is obviously a threat to the community that I live in. So for many of my Jewish neighbours, including myself, there’s obviously that concern that this exists in our society and we cant get rid of it.”

The incident came on the eve of the release of a report by B’Nai Brith Canada that said, for the third year in a row, anti-Semitic targeted crimes are on the rise. The organization said its “2018 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents” lists more than 2,000 cases of harassment, vandalism and violence.