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 workplace earlier this week.
Surveillance cameras outside his office building in Irvine captured most of the Oct. 15 ambush, in which three hooded and masked men used their car, a light-colored SUV, to stop him from parking his car as he left, pulling him from the car and beating him as he tried to fight from the ground.
The victim, who spoke to KTLA on condition of anonymity on camera, was repeatedly pistol-whipped by the suspects, two of whom were carrying weapons, before they tore off his Richard Mille quartz sports watch, worth an estimated $600,000, and fled.
One of the most terrifying aspects of a violent robbery was what the robbers were saying.
“I’m in the car,” the victim told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe. “I try to hold the door with both hands and discover the lock button. The man in the white hood was sitting on my face, shouting: ‘Shoot him! Shoot him!”
He says one of the other suspects kept trying to point the gun, and he believes in footage of the incident, he can see where the suspect’s guns jammed, which is why he was not shot.
“I don’t know why I’m alive now,” he said.
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Footage of a violent robbery outside an office building in Irvine on October 15, 2025. (Viewer photo) -
Footage of a violent robbery outside an office building in Irvine on October 15, 2025. (Viewer photo) -
Footage of a violent robbery outside an office building in Irvine on October 15, 2025. (Viewer photo) -
Footage of a violent robbery outside an office building in Irvine on October 15, 2025. (Viewer photo) -
Footage of a violent robbery outside an office building in Irvine on October 15, 2025. (Viewer photo) -
The victim’s Richard Mille watch, worth approximately $600,000, was stolen in the burglary that occurred on October 15, 2025. (Viewer photo)
He is the owner of a financial services institution and admits that he enjoys the fruits of his labor and has collected many luxury items, although he now says that posting some of these items on social media may have been a mistake.
“I don’t have a public page,” he told KTLA. “It is a private matter but publishing anything was clearly a mistake.”
Even with a private social media account, posting things like an oversized watch can attract the wrong kind of attention, says Kyle Oldwerp, spokesman for the Irvine Police Department.
“We’ve seen this from time to time,” Oldwerp said.
In this case, it appears that the thieves may have waited up to four hours for the victim to leave his office and leave work for the night.
In CCTV 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, hopes someone will be able to identify the suspect.
Anyone with information about the investigation is urged to contact the Irvine Police Department.