Jeweler Fights Back, Scares Gunman Away

By GREG HERNANDEZ

Sept. 3, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEWPORT BEACH — With a gun pointed at his face, a jewelry store owner decided to fight back Wednesday morning rather than allow himself to be handcuffed by a robber.

Fred Mozaffarian, 32, managed to thwart an attempted robbery by pushing the gunman to the ground in the back room of his shop at 2901 W. Coast Highway.

“He was threatening me and was pointing a gun to my face,” Mozaffarian said several hours after the 10:22 a.m. confrontation. “He told me to lie down on the ground and said to me, ‘I am going to shoot one of your legs. Which leg would you like me to shoot?’ Then he pulled out some handcuffs. That’s when I pushed him.”

A shot was fired as the two men scuffled, but no one was injured, said Newport Beach Sgt. Andy Gonis.

The gunman had showed up at the front door of Mozaffarian Jewelry shortly after it opened Wednesday morning. Mozaffarian, who was alone, said he unlocked the door for the robber because he “looked harmless.”

“He said he wanted to look at some necklaces for his mother, and before I knew it, he pulled out a gun and was ready to shoot,” Mozaffarian said. “He wanted me to unlock the door and let two of his buddies in. I told him there were security cameras on him. I kept saying, ‘Don’t shoot.’ He was really nervous.”

When the gun went off as the two men fought, the robber ran from the store.

He drove off with two other men in a white, 1970s Subaru with tinted windows and a pop-up sun roof. The car had a bumper sticker next to its rear license plate, police said.

The gunman was described as white, in his early 20s with shoulder-length blond hair. He was wearing a straw hat, a blue T-shirt and black jeans. Police did not have detailed descriptions of the other two men.

Gonis said police “don’t normally suggest that people take defensive action, because a lot of things can go wrong. The difficulty is that no one really knows how (the victims) are going to react in a crisis situation. We try and urge people to follow certain steps when they are confronted. We recommend that they stay as calm as possible, follow store policy, observe as much as they can and call 911 or activate their alarm as soon as safely possible.”

Mozaffarian, who has owned the shop for four years, said he wasn’t worried about protecting his merchandise. He said he was fighting for his life.

The relieved jewelry store owner said he planned to go to Disneyland on Wednesday night and maybe take a short vacation.

“I feel lucky,” he said. “I really feel like going to the south of France. Life is just too short.”