A car belonging to a widow whose son was wounded in the war in Gaza was stolen last Saturday night from Petah Tikva's Hadar Ganim neighborhood.
Inside the new car, selected by her husband before his death last month, was the late husband's cellphone, which consisted of family photos and memories.
The alleged thief, a resident of the Bedouin town of Laqiya in the Negev Desert, was caught on security camera. The suspect attempted to steal two vehicles but failed, and then succeeded on the third attempt.
The vehicle was at first traced to a forest near the Meitar Checkpoint and later to Palestinian Authority-controlled territory.
Yaron Kadosh, the founder of the city's neighborhood watch program, reported that he spoke directly with the thief, who demanded payment for the car to be returned.
Kadosh stated that he directly negotiated with the thief on the phone for two days, during which the latter demanded a ransom and posted footage of the car on TikTok, where he advertised it for sale with Israeli license plates.
At a certain point, contact was cut off following a warning from security officials who clarified that the negotiations constituted a violation of the law and could expose those involved to further fraud.
He noted: "I have the full details of the Bedouin thief, including his name and photograph, as well as those of two others who negotiated on his behalf. They didn't even feel the need to hide."
He criticized how the police managed the case: "If the state wants, the car could return to her at once; it has to want to, and apparently, it doesn't because the public's property is forsaken. We all fund terrorism through car theft. This money goes to crime and terrorism. It doesn't help needy families. This war hero, this fresh widow, deserves that the state stop everything and find her car. We've lost all compassion and common sense."