Mansour "George" Kholousi was a happy man Tuesday afternoon, thinking he was about to sell two vehicles on his lot at 1500 Cornhusker Highway.
CATHARINE HUDDLE / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 7:00 pm
Mansour “George” Kholousi was a happy man Tuesday afternoon, thinking he was about to sell two vehicles on his lot at 1500 Cornhusker Highway.
A few minutes later, he was lying on the ground with a bullet wound in his leg.
Kholousi, 52, said he got back to the car lot around 4 from the Department of Motor Vehicles to find two customers waiting.
“One of them said he had sixteen hundred dollars. He showed me an envelope but I never saw the money,” he said Wednesday. “I said, ‘OK, I will sell it to you.’
“I was happy selling something, and he said, ‘Oh, my friend wants to buy a car, too,’ and I said, ‘OK, that’s cool.’ He said he could put twelve hundred dollars down on the down payment, so I got happy again, and I said, ‘Let’s go outside and see what we have.’”
Kholousi was showing them what he had to offer when, he said, a man in a mask showed up and demanded money.
“I said, ‘Who is this?’ I thought this was just joking. He was pushing the gun to my body and I said, ‘Who is this?’ … I was just stupid. I thought it was a fake gun. …
“When I told him I don’t have money, then he said, ‘Do you think I’m kidding? Do you think I’m kidding?’ I said, ‘Who are you?’ and then he took his mask off and he said, ‘You think I’m joking?’ And then he shot my leg.”
As he lay on the ground screaming, he said, the man with the gun ran away. The two customers ran to his office, shouting that he’d been shot.
Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood said investigators were still trying to develop leads in the shooting Wednesday.
Had he known the gun was real and the man was serious, Kholousi said, he’d have emptied his pockets.
The bullet went through his leg below the knee.
“I definitely was very lucky,” he said. “You know, it’s just tough when you’re working and you need your legs to do everything you do.”
He was released after treatment at BryanLGH Medical Center West and said doctors told him he might be able to walk on the leg by the end of the week.
Kholousi came to the U.S. from Iran more than 30 years ago and has been in Lincoln for more than 20. In December, he said, he’ll celebrate his 10th anniversary at George’s Auto Sales.
He also used to own several restaurants, including George’s Gourmet Grill, which sold hot and spicy gyros at 14th and O streets.
He said he’s never been robbed before.
“We deposit money right away. We go sometimes three times a day to the bank,” he said. “But maybe this is a little bit blame on economy, that people don’t have money, or it was randomly they got me.”
He said business at the car lot, which offers payment plans, has been OK, but he needs to sell a few cars a day to stay in business.
Kholousi said he may take a class in self-defense after what happened Tuesday.
He won’t be carrying a gun, though.
“These things happen so rapidly, so fast … if that happened a gun would not be the solution. Best to just give the money or get quick help or defend yourself. You cannot carry a gun all of the time.
“Definitely God was behind me. Otherwise, a little bit higher or over it would have crippled me.”
Reach Catharine Huddle at 473-7222 or chuddle@journalstar.com.