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Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff, director of the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center, was up before dawn Sunday driving his son to a Houston airport. Four hours later -- about 7 a.m. -- he pulled back into the parking lot at the center and discovered their front sign missing.

After reviewing surveillance videos, Lazaroff said he discovered an unidentifiable individual had vandalized and stolen the sign -- which has the center's name, a Menorah and Hebrew text -- just 15 minutes after he left the site at Live Oak Street not far from Texas Avenue and University Drive.

"The person was literally running and kicking the sign in order to break it off, and they were successful," he said. "They not only broke it off but also took it."

The center director of 10 years said he immediately contacted College Station police, as well as representatives from the Secure Community Network to report what he described as a "targeted act of vandalism."

A spokesperson for College Station police said the incident was under investigation late Sunday.

The Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center was opened in 2007 by Lazaroff and his wife, Manya, to support the Texas A&M community. Since its establishment, the director said he has never experienced a criminal act of this nature.