The ongoing riots in the US have been harsh on the unlucky store owners whose businesses are being broken into and looted by some greedy rioters. One of the latest victims of looting is Samir Pierre Farhat; a Lebanese jewelry store owner.
A video recently posted on social media shows a group of rioters using brute force to break open “Pierre’s Jewelers” in La Mesa, California. Over a dozen trespassers rushed into the store and began to plunder its precious valuables.
Without any concern or hesitation, using baseball bats and other objects, the looters broke the showcases and bagged their contents.
While most of them were wearing bandanas and masks to conceal their identities, some faces were exposed and clearly caught by the surveillance camera that the social media footage was exported from.
The same footage shows that the break-in took place on May 30th, at 11:27 PM.
Commenting on the incident, Samir Pierre Farhat told NBC 7 that he and his wife were watching the destruction live through the security cameras from their cellphones as it unfolded in their store.
“It was devastating, actually,” the Lebanese-American said, noting that he and his wife had built this business “from the ground up” over the course of 40 years.
Despite having witnessed their hard work being reduced into a pile of shattered glass, the business and life partners are keeping an optimistic outlook, especially after locals volunteered to help them repair and rebuild their store.
After Pierre’s Jewelers was looted, many people came to help clean and repaint it with the hope of having it back in business as soon as possible. This has helped give the overwhelmed couple a surge of positivity and encouragement.
“I just want to go back to normal, if we can, and I’m sure we will,” Beatrice, Samir’s wife, told NBC 7. “With faith and hard work, we’ll make it again.”
To avoid a similar fate, another Lebanese-American is putting his guns to good use and vowing to protect his hard-earned business from vandalism and looting.
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