NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FLA. – A man of faith came under the gun when, he said, a pair of teens attacked him outside of his North Miami Beach home.
More police officers are patrolling a North Miami Beach neighborhood, Friday night, after Rabbi George Tanev was left bloody and bruised from a robbery that took place during the overnight hours.
Tanev, the father of two children, said he had just finished up his night job as an Uber driver and, upon pulling up and exiting his car near his home on Northeast 170th Street, he was met by a pair of gun-toting teens.
“They come to me and said, ‘Give us everything or we’re gonna shoot you,” he said. “And they pulled out big guns… Each one had one gun.”
The victim said his assailants then pistol-whipped him. “They started hitting me on the head,” Tanev said. “I told them, ‘I have children and this is all my life. I can’t surrender my car.’”
Tanev said the subjects then took off his cash, iPhone and even took his prayer books and other items needed for his rabbinical work.
They left him with his car and his life.
His neighbors yelled for the crooks to stop and call 911 before they were scooped up by a getaway truck.
“I seen the white pickup truck that was right there, and it just zoomed off,” the neighbor said.
Tanev showed 7News his bloody shirt.
Hours removed from the attack, Tanev still showed up for services at Shul for Shabbat.
But neighbors are feeling anxious. “It’s troublesome,” one neighbor said.
“It’s very hurtful,” said another neighbor.
The predominately Jewish community still remembers the 2014 murder of Rabbi Yosef Raksin, and other gun crimes that followed. But, Tanev said, the neighborhood can and will be made better.
“We cannot leave the place because it’s a bad place, we can just make it a better place,” he said.
Tanev was checked out at the hospital but didn’t have any serious injuries.
Police said the attackers fled in a white pickup truck.
If you have any information on this robbery, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $1,000 reward.
