Suspect in Masonic hall incidents leaves Nazi symbol at Lancaster Twp. synagogue: police
Police want the public's help finding a man accused of posting a Nazi symbol and other offensive messages at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue and school in Lancaster Township last month.
The suspect, Joshua Albert Reisinger, 37, was charged in September with crimes related to leaving "unusual objects" at Masonic halls in Millersville and in Steelton, Dauphin County, in recent months.
Lancaster Township police said Thursday that on Sept. 19-20 Reisinger was seen outside Degel Israel Congregation on Columbia Avenue by a man removing a sign from a utility pole.
The man who reported Reisinger's license plate to police said Reisinger was parked across the street. Reisinger is accused of posting "derogatory and antisemitic signs, including a Nazi 'SS' symbol" on the congregation’s property, police said.
"Mr. Reisinger imitated a pistol using his fingers, pointed at the congregant, and motioned like he was shooting at the congregant," Lancaster Township police said in an online posting. He was identified with the help of other police agencies who had investigated Reisinger, police said.
The online docket indicates he is accused of ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats, harassment and disorderly conduct.
Reisinger was staying in a hotel in the Lancaster area but has since left and may be at a shelter, police said. Tipsters can call police at 717-664-1180.
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He was arrested Sept. 20 in Steelton after being stopped for alleged driving violations and was accused of what police described as a series of suspicious and concerning incidents.
Police said that starting in mid-August, someone left a dead cat, crow, squirrel and raccoon at the Paxton Lodge No. 16 Masonic Hall on North Harrisburg Street in Steelton. Also left there were balloons, spray painted shoes, the bust of a doll, playing cards, feathers, candles, hair, written messages and riddles.
Millersville police filed a misdemeanor harassment charge against him for depositing items at Masonic Lodge No. 476 on Frederick Street in Millersville on six occasions between Aug. 12 and Aug. 22.
Police allege he taped items to the Millersville lodge sign – a ponytail of hair, a handwritten sign with Nazi symbols “and a message regarding kidnapping children and hitting women,” a second sign with Nazi symbols and a third sign that referred to a Civil War soldier.
Other items left on the Millersville lodge property in August, police said, were boxer shorts with a pig pattern, a pig’s ear, a “RIP” decoration, balloons, two playing cards (one with a note: “ya done!”), a plastic ball-and-chain item and a statue of Confucius.
When stopped by a Steelton Borough Police Department officer, Reisinger was allegedly driving without the ignition interlock device required under a restricted driver’s license.
When police checked the Steelton Masonic lodge building after Reisinger’s arrest, they found a small wooden coffin with “an offensive written message,” a fake severed finger marked with a cross, and what police said appeared to be an image of a church that had been crossed out.
In Dauphin County, he is accused of terroristic threats, trespassing, loitering and prowling at night, disorderly conduct, scattering rubbish and traffic offenses. In the Millersville case, he is accused of harassment and driving on a suspended or revoked license.