Home Heavily Damaged by Vandals : Hate crimes: The attack on the Sylmar residence is called the worst this year in the northeast Valley. The intruders also took about $900.

Vandals ripped upholstery, poured bleach on carpeting and spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti throughout a Sylmar house in what police called the most extensive hate crime in terms of damage so far this year in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The break-in, in which cash was also taken, followed the discovery of vandalism Tuesday morning at a Tujunga synagogue, where exterior walls were defaced by swastikas and a smiling face bearing the words, “Have a Nazi Day.”

Los Angeles Police Detective Jim Soles said it was unlikely that the two incidents, committed 15 miles apart, were related.

Soles, who investigates hate crimes in the Police Department’s Foothill Division, said Wednesday’s incident in the 13700 block of Shablow Avenue was “definitely the worst as far as an actual vandalism and a direct attack against any individual because of their religion” in the last year.

Homeowner Esther L. Silberman discovered the vandalism about 11 a.m. Wednesday after she had been out for two hours, Soles said. Silberman, who Soles said is Jewish, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Property records show she has owned the house at least eight years.

Swastikas were spray-painted on walls and posters, and the word Jew was sprayed on a bedroom mirror, Soles said. The vandals also dribbled bleach throughout the house, ruining the wall-to-wall carpeting, and used either a knife or razor blade to scratch wood furniture and rip open upholstery.

Soles was unable to provide a damage estimate. At the Verdugo Hills Hebrew Center on the 10200 block of Tujunga Canyon Boulevard about $100 in damage was committed Monday night or early Tuesday.

On Shablow Avenue, the vandals also stole about $900 in cash and stacked up several items near a rear door as if planning to steal them, Soles said. However, he said he believed the incident was primarily a hate crime.

“It’s my determination that when the people broke into the house, they broke in with a specific intent of trashing the residence, committing the vandalism in an anti-Semitic way. And then, also once inside, they were going to commit the theft.”