FAIRPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Members of a New York City synagogue are searching an upstate landfill for a religious item that fell into a trash can last week.

WHEC-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2fVCtgc ) a congregant at a Brooklyn synagogue lost an embroidered bag containing his tefillin (teh-FIHL'-ihn), scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. A hallway video surveillance camera shows the bag in its clear plastic protective covering tumbling from a cubby into a garbage can.

When the synagogue's rabbi contacted the city's Sanitation Department, he was told the trash was hauled in train cars to the landfill in Fairport, near Rochester.

Dozens of synagogue members were bused upstate to sift through tons of garbage from dozens of rail cars in an effort to find the bag. They've had no luck after two days of searching, but planned to resume on Wednesday.

[STORY BY: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS]

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