Being a bookworm never paid big dividends...

Being a bookworm never paid big dividends for Gardena receptionist Rae Okubo until someone tried to snatch her purse.

Okubo, the receptionist at City Councilman Paul Tsukahara’s dental offices, said she believes a thick paperback novel she was carrying in her purse during a robbery saved her from injury when the robber shot at her and hit the book instead.

Okubo said she did not realize she had been fired upon until she arrived home that evening and found the bullet at the bottom of her purse, where it came to rest after passing through the novel--a Hollywood saga called “All That Glitters”--a checkbook and an aerosol bottle of breath spray.

The incident occurred about midnight on Feb. 26 as Okubo and two friends were leaving from a late dinner at a restaurant on Redondo Beach Boulevard in Gardena. As they walked a friend to her car, a second car with the headlights off pulled in front of them and a young man jumped out, grabbed a purse from one of the women and demanded those of the other two.

“We just started screaming,” Okubo said. Okubo and one of the women ran back to the restaurant and as they ran, she said, “we heard a pop-pop.” The robber drove off, and the women called the police, filed a report, and went home, thankful to escape uninjured, Okubo said.

“At first I thought it wasn’t that great a book,” Okubo said, “Now I think it’s wonderful.”