HEARTBREAKING: LA family-owned jewelry store owner, with tears in his eyes, after looters destroyed his family business:
"Very bad... Why they come here?... I'm not a big guy. I'm not a big fish."
Reporter: "Earlier, we were at the Apple store, we were at the Adidas store—both of them looted, the glass shattered, a lot of things stolen. And they're big companies, they'll take a hit, but it is the small, the mom and pop businesses that have also been looted that are heartbreaking. Joining me now live, Nemat and his daughter Sheila. They've been in the jewelry business, Nathan's Jewelers, since 1987 here on South Hill. And we're going to show you the shattered glass in just a moment. Nemat, I mean, you have tears in your eyes of what they've done to your business."
Nemat: "What they've done to my business, I don't know. I have to go inside, see what’s going on. I don't know what they've done to my business."
Reporter: "Right, but you were telling me that—why take out whatever issues people have on you, a small business owner?"
Nemat: "Not only me, it’s a lot of people. There’s so many people."
Reporter: "How does this affect you?"
Nemat: "Very bad. It’s one week of the riot, and people have the tension and other things, and they close the business, and nobody can come inside. And another day, something else, and another day, something else. Why don't they build them to downtown? Why does people come to downtown? They go to somewhere out of the city limits and they scream about what they want to do—why they come here?"
Sheila: "And why did they affect a small business owner? Sheila, your dad works so hard. And he was telling me, and he had tears in his eyes earlier that, you know, the store now—you still have to see the damage done inside. This is a jewelry mart. We also have video of other stores that were looted overnight. There were reports, Sheila, of up to a hundred looters at a time at a jewelry business."
Sheila: "Crazy, very crazy, very sad, very terrible."
Reporter: "And your dad works really hard. I'm sure you work really hard too. This is a small family-owned business, and there's no insurance."
Sheila: "No."
Reporter: "How is this going to affect your family?"
Sheila: "Really bad. Really bad. People are stupid. People are stupid. What can you do?"
Reporter: "And why target you? You have nothing to do with any of this."
Sheila: "I know. I know. I don't know why."
Reporter: "I'm sorry, Sheila. I'm sorry, Nemat. I hope the damage isn't too bad inside."
Nemat: "We live in San Bernardino. It's far away to come in here. And we have kids to drive the car, come in here and maybe they damage the car. We took the bus at two o'clock and we came right now to (check on it)."
Reporter: "I hope the damage isn't too bad. Your business was one of many businesses that were looted overnight."
Nemat: "And I don't sell jewelry. I sell like custom jewelry, silver, you know, I'm not the big guy, I'm not the big fish."
Reporter: "You're not a big fish? Well, that's why it hurts even more, because you're not a big fish. You're not Apple, you're not Adidas—and they're going to take a loss too. I'm so sorry for this. Multiple businesses, there were many arrests made— we're waiting to get those numbers from the LAPD."