Brink’s Guard Crushed by Quarters

A Brink’s armored car guard was crushed to death Monday when $50,000 in quarters fell on him as the driver braked suddenly to avoid an automobile.

The California Highway Patrol said the Brink’s truck was southbound on the San Diego Freeway near Lake Forest Drive in Orange County when driver Scott Daniel Bauman, 29, of Northridge slammed on his brakes to keep from colliding with a car that had swerved in front of him.

Bauman told the CHP that he heard a loud noise in the back of the truck and pulled off on the shoulder of the freeway to investigate. Opening the back door, he said he found his partner, Hrand L. Arakelian, 34, of Santee, buried under a load of 25-pound coin boxes.

Unable to extricate Arakelian without assistance, Bauman said he closed the back door of the truck and drove to the nearest exit to summon help.

But when he returned he couldn’t reopen the back door.

In his haste, Orange County Fire Department public information officer Pat Antrim said, Bauman had locked the back door key inside the truck.

“Anything that could go wrong, went wrong,” Antrim said.

A bystander ran to a nearby store and summoned locksmith Bud Pherson, who said he was able to open the door about the time paramedics arrived and began removing the coin boxes one by one.

“When I opened the door,” Pherson said, “the gentleman’s feet were sticking out from underneath the pallets. He was completely covered by boxes of coins.”

Paramedics tried to resuscitate Arakelian, then took him to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.