DOCUMENT: Crime

Man Busted For Latest Mosque Bacon Vandalism

Floridian, 35, facing felony count for ransacking

JANUARY 5--Police have arrested a man who allegedly vandalized a Florida mosque on New Year’s Day, an attack that included the placement of raw bacon on the building’s front door.

Detectives last night collared Michael Scott Wolfe, 35, in connection with the 11 PM ransacking of the Masjid Al-Munin mosque in Titusville. Investigators identified Wolfe with the aid of video captured by mosque surveillance cameras.

According to cops, Wolfe used a machete to break windows and damage lights and security cameras. Wolfe, seen above, then placed raw bacon on the mosque’s front door handle.

Since Muslims are prohibited from touching or consuming bacon and other pork products, mosque leaders have contended that the vandalism was a bias attack.

Wolfe, who did not break into the mosque, has been charged with criminal mischief involving a religious building, a felony. He is being held on $2000 bond in advance of a court appearance this afternoon. According to jail records, Wolfe lives in Cocoa Beach, a city about 30 miles south of the small Titusville mosque.  

The January 1 incident was the second time in a week that a U.S. mosque was vandalized with raw bacon. Federal and state investigators are still searching for the suspect responsible for last Sunday’s attack on a Las Vegas mosque. The FBI has offered a $5000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the man seen putting bacon on the front and rear doors of the Masjid Tawheed mosque in Spring Valley, a town two miles from the Las Vegas Strip.