For over 30 years, 81-year-old Iranian immigrant Ned Harounian ran the Dr. Martens shop at 7618 Melrose Ave. However, that all changed on May 30, when looters swept through the store, stealing and destroying over half a million dollars of merchandise and personal family belongings and then burning what remained.
Now, only the building stands.
“My dad’s work was everything to him,” Ebbi Harounian, Ned’s son, told the Journal. “And now it’s gone.”
Harounian said he was watching the riots on television when he saw his dad’s store on fire. “My wife was sitting next to me and says, ‘Ebbi, look, it’s your dad’s car.’ When he heard about what was happening, [my dad] went to the store. I called him and said, ‘What are you doing over there?’ He said, ‘It’s my life.’”
Ned, a widower, not only lost his livelihood in the fire, but precious family heirlooms: his late wife’s belongings were there, including pictures, clothing and jewelry. “All of my father’s memories with my mom were in that store,” Harounian said.
Ned’s wife Yafa, to whom he was married for 47 years, died three years ago from pancreatic cancer. Prior to her death, the couple ran the store together, and built up an impressive celebrity clientele including Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, Halle Berry and Bruce Willis.
“My dad and Shaq were so close that they used to play backgammon together,” Harounian said. “My dad would make him tea. When Bruce Willis’ house burned down, he came to our store to get a new leather jacket.”
The Harounian family — Ned, Yafa, Ebbi and his sisters Naz and Firouzeh —came to the United States in the 1980s. They came at different times, splitting into three groups and going through Afghanistan, Pakistan and Austria. Ebbi, who was 14 at the time, didn’t see his parents for two years, while Yafa went with Naz and Firouzeh. They all met up in Los Angeles and started their life over.
Ned purchased Solomon’s David Book Store, located on Fairfax Avenue at the time. He ran it for nine years before opening the shoe store. Ned would work at the Dr. Martens shop seven days a week for nine or 10 hours a day.
“My dad never had a day off in his life, and he loved it,” Harounian said. “That was his passion. He wanted his family to have everything. I had a great life because he helped me. He worked his fingers to the bone for us.” He added his father would socialize in the shop with his friends and loved ones.
“This was his social media. This was his Facebook,” Harounian said. “All the neighbors in the houses behind the store knew him. These kids would buy Dr. Martens from my dad, and when they grew up, they’d bring in their own kids to buy them shoes. Now, the whole history is gone.”
Harounian discovered a YouTube video of looters breaking the window, telling each other to go in and get money and then stealing everything in sight. In the wake of the destruction, someone had scrawled “capitalism” on the building.
“My dad and Shaq were so close that they used to play backgammon together. My dad would make him tea. When Bruce Willis’ house burned down, he came to our store to get a new leather jacket.” — Ebbi Harounian
Harounian said while he empathized with the protesters’ cause, he condemned the actions of the looters and how they targeted businesses. “What happened to Mr. Floyd was absolutely wrong,” he said. “Everybody should have a voice and be able to speak and protest. But looting and burning down other people’s property is absolutely wrong. We as Jews know what happened when they killed us over and over again throughout history. When we were in Iran, we had issues but we never went and burned down anybody’s store or broke anybody’s window.”
Immediately after the store was destroyed, Harounian set up a GoFundMe account to rebuild it and cover costs that insurance would not. To date, he’s raised more than $60,000 of his $75,000 goal from more than 1,400 donors. People from all around the world, including the United Kingdom and India, are sending money.
“They understand what we went through,” Harounian said. “I get messages saying, ‘We feel for you. We are immigrants too. We are here and we’re trying to make it.’”
The campaign picked up steam when Halle Berry tweeted about it and encouraged fans to donate; People magazine, Entertainment Tonight and Daily Mail ended up covering it as well.
While Harounian said Ned had “no hope” the day the destruction happened, when he saw people were donating and sending messages to him, he changed his perspective.
“I read him the messages and his eyes were full of tears. Now, he believes he can come back from this. He says, ‘When I get back on my feet, I will open the store, invite everyone, cook for them and give them hot tea.’ He doesn’t say ‘if.’ He says ‘when.’”
