Police in Montauk have reportedly arrested the man who scrawled swastikas and other anti-Jewish messages on businesses in the Long Island beach town.
Michael Nicholoulias, 74, was arrested Monday night as he drew a swastika on a bench in the posh seaside village, according to News 12 Long Island.
Cops previously said his antisemitic words and images covered the doors, fences and picnic tables of restaurants Naturally Good Foods and Cafe and Sausages Pizza and Patabilities and on food trucks and signs at Ditch Plains Beach.
Swastikas were spray-painted in black at the Naturally Good Foods and Cafe and the words “Jews die” were also scrawled on fencing in German, the Daily News reported.
On the food trucks at Ditch Plains Beach, another swastika showed up with the words “Free Palestine” written next to it.
Shop owners and locals discovered the vandalism on Oct. 30, according to police..
During a news conference, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told press that Suffolk County Police Department Hate Crimes, working alongside East Hampton Police Department, had been surveilling Nicholoulias since Nov. 10.
Up until his arrest, the man had been terrorizing the town with vandalism since October, Tierney said.
Nicholoulias is accused of 14 separate acts of hateful vandalism, he added.
In a post made to Facebook after the late-October attacks, Rabbi Josh Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons wrote the vandalism was akin to a modern-day Kristallnacht.
“I spent the morning in Montauk cleaning up the graffiti left on a Montauk store owned by Jews,” said Franklin.
Nicholoulias was charged with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief, among other crimes, according to News 12 Long Island.
He reportedly pleaded not guilty and was released after a court hearing with two orders of protection and GPS monitoring.
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