{"id":276495,"date":"2026-05-19T12:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276495\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:16:09","slug":"police-2-german-men-arrested-after-anti-semitic-message-written-on-miami-beach-park-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276495\/","title":{"rendered":"Police: 2 German men arrested after anti-Semitic message written on Miami Beach park bench"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0May 19, 2026 at 7:41 AM<\/p>\n<p>lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpand<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/NIXVNOFM4FGLNILGDSLIKORE2U.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/>(Miami-Dade Corrections &amp; Rehabilitation) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI BEACH, Fla.  \u2014 Two German tourists were arrested Monday after an anti-Semitic message and symbol were written on a \u201cLGBTQIA+ bench\u201d at Lummus Park in Miami Beach, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to the suspects\u2019 arrest reports, the incident was reported just after 5:30 p.m. in the area of 12th Street and Ocean Drive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A photo of the graffiti shows a swastika symbol and the message, \u201cAdolf was here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/D5WWT5WTMJFOHNBDB7SWHPB2HE.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Anti-Semitic message on park bench in Miami Beach (Miami Beach Police Department) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police said they reviewed the city\u2019s cameras in the area and quickly identified the individuals responsible \u2013 Christoph Rehak, 58, and Gunther Manfred Jekschtat, 63.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to their arrest reports, surveillance video shows Rehak asking a friend for a marker. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Rehak and Jekschtat then sat on the bench next to each other before Rehak began to write on the bench while Jekschtat blocked him with his body so he couldn\u2019t be seen by others, the reports stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police said they located both suspects at the Colony Hotel, on Ocean Drive, where four people were initially detained for questioning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police said both Rehak and Jekschtat admitted to their involvement in the incident, with Jekschtat saying his actions were meant to \u201cdefend his friend\u201d and Rehak saying he wrote the message as a \u201cjoke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Both men were arrested on a criminal mischief charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As of Tuesday morning, both were being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $500 bond. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Amanda Batchelor\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/83776d46-011c-4018-ab.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Amanda Batchelor<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0May 19, 2026 at 7:41 AM lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpand(Miami-Dade Corrections &amp; Rehabilitation) MIAMI BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Two German tourists were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-276495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}