An Orange County businessman is speaking out about a possible mistake he made that likely made him the target of a violent ambush and robbery outside his place of work earlier this week.
Surveillance cameras outside his Irvine office building captured much of the Oct. 15 ambush, where three hooded and masked men use their vehicle, a light-colored SUV, to block him in his parking space as he was leaving, pull him from the car and beat him as he tries to put a fight from the ground.
The victim, who spoke to KTLA on the condition that he not be identified on camera, was repeatedly pistol-whipped by the suspects, two of whom he says had guns, before they tore off his Richard Mille quartz sports watch, valued at nearly $600,000 and fled.
One of the most chilling aspects of the violent robbery was what the thieves were saying.
“I’m in the car,” the victim told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe. “I’m trying to hold the door with both hands. The guy with white hoodie [was] screaming, ‘Shoot him! Shoot him!’”
He believes in footage of the incident, he can see where one of the suspects’ guns jammed, which is why he wasn’t shot.
“I don’t know why I’m alive right now,” he said.
The owner of a financial services organization, he admits that he enjoys the fruits of his labor and collecting various luxury items, though now says posting some of these items on social media may have been a misstep.
“I don’t have a public page,” he told KTLA. “It’s private but obviously, that was a mistake, posting anything.”
Kyle Oldoerp, spokesperson for the Irvine Police Department, says that even with a private social media account, posting items like an extensive timepiece can draw the wrong kind of attention.
“We have seen this from time to time,” Oldoerp said.
It appears in this case that the thieves may have waited as long as four hours for the victim to come out of his office and leave work for the night.
In grainy surveillance footage, one of the men appears to have lost his mask during the violent struggle and the victim, who is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of his attackers, is hoping someone may recognize the suspect.
Anyone with information about the investigation is urged to contact the Irvine Police Department.
The post Orange County man beaten in violent ambush, robbed of nearly $600K watch appeared first on KTLA.
