Scout’s Good Deed: Foiling a Felony at Fireworks Stand

A 12-year-old Costa Mesa Boy Scout helped foil an armed robbery at a fireworks stand early Thursday by running barefoot to a hospital emergency room and calling the police for help.

Two gunshots were exchanged between a Costa Mesa police officer and a fleeing suspect during the incident, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Tom Durham said. The suspect, Joseph Daniel Lopez, 19, was arrested after a short chase, but a suspected accomplice escaped, Durham added.

Lopez, of Corona, was booked on suspicion of robbery, assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer and auto theft. He is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Fireworks stand operator Jim Adam, 37, said he and Joseph McNabb, 41, have been sleeping in a motor home next to the stand for the past several nights “to prevent break-ins.” But “nobody said anything about robberies,” he added.

McNabb is scoutmaster and Adam is the assistant scoutmaster for Scout Troop 339. The stand, on Newport Boulevard near Victoria Street, has been raising funds for the troop. McNabb’s son, Joey, Adam’s son, Chris, 11, and a third troop member, Bruce King, 14, have been helping with fireworks sales.

Shortly after midnight, Adam said, the group served its last customer and was beginning to close the stand when a man wearing a bandanna over his mouth and nose and wielding a handgun motioned Adam, his son, McNabb and King into the rear of the shack and told them to lie on the floor.

Shoved Into Bathtub

Joey McNabb was in the motor home preparing for bed, Adam said. A second man, who did not appear to be armed, went inside the trailer in search of the boy.

“He shoved me into the bathtub,” Joey said. “He pointed at me and said, ‘Stay there and you won’t get hurt.’ ”

The man then left the motor home but was unsuccessful in locking it from the outside, Joey said, which allowed him to escape.

“When I got out of the motor home . . . I saw them all on the floor (of the fireworks stand),” he said. “I took off running to the medical center.”

Joseph McNabb said his son made the run barefoot across a glass-strewn field to Costa Mesa Medical Center Hospital.

Joey said he told a nurse to dial 911 and summon police. “I said, ‘Hurry up because they might get hurt because they had guns.’ ”

“It was a matter of 30 seconds when we heard sirens and the helicopter,” Joseph McNabb said.

According to Lt. Durham, a helicopter and a patrol car arrived at the fireworks stand less than a minute after Joey’s call. Durham said the helicopter stayed with Lopez, who fled south and was captured several blocks away in the Bay Street parking lot of the Daily Pilot newspaper office. The other man fled east on foot and escaped, Durham said.

Fired Shot at Officers

As Lopez began to run, he turned and fired one shot at the officers in the car, Durham said. An officer responded with one shot of his own, but neither shot hit anyone, he said.

The suspects’ car, which is believed to be stolen, was left at the scene and impounded by police.

Assistant Scoutmaster Adam said the gunman frightened him because he looked “real nervous.”

“We were lucky to get through in one piece,” he said. “Who knows? A guy crazy enough to rob a fireworks stand . . . .”

McNabb agreed. “They scared me because they weren’t calm. I thought for sure they were going to shoot.”

The men had asked for jewelry, money and the stand’s cashbox. In all, they took about $400 worth of watches, $400 worth of fireworks and $200 in cash. Most of the day’s sales had already been turned in to a representative of the Costa Mesa Lions Club, Troop 339’s sponsor, McNabb said.

Some of the loot was recovered, police said, adding that more might be in the car, which they had yet to search.

‘More Interested in Fireworks’

Adam said the two men made two trips--the first to take money and jewelry and the second to take fireworks back to their car. “They (the men) must have been kids, because they were more interested in fireworks” than in money, Adam said. “If they were only going after jewelry and money, they would have gotten away.”

McNabb was concerned most about his son’s whereabouts during the incident. “What panicked me was the sound of the shots,” he said, “because I didn’t have sight or control of my son.

“I’m sorry some of these guys (the Scouts) had to be exposed to something like that,” McNabb said.

“It never crossed by mind that we could be robbed,” he said, adding that he now realizes that a robbery could happen to “anything, to any fund-raiser.”

As for Joey McNabb, his father plans to recommend him for a lifesaving badge, “Because that’s what he did.”