A man said he was ambushed and robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of his apartment complex in Sunrise after spending a night out with his girlfriend and friends in Fort Lauderdale.
Speaking with 7News on Thursday, Rakeeb Hosein said the armed robbery happened at around 4 a.m. on May 26.
“I was like, ‘Please God, don’t shoot me in my back,’” he said.
The victim said he was walking toward his apartment unit on De Lago Circle when the three masked armed men pulled in.
“Right there, I saw the car pull in, I looked back,” said Hosein.
Within seconds, one of the subjects, armed with an AR-15, jumped out of a moving Hyundai Tucson.
“I was like here, I hear the ‘whoosh’ with the engine of the car, and I go to turn around, the guy is already on me,” said Hosein, “so I kind of jumped. I think I jumped this way.”
A second masked subject, also armed with an assault rifle, jumped out of the Tucson moments later.
“I’m getting robbed here, you know, ;cause I saw gun in his hand. I was startled, ’cause I jumped away,’” said Hosein. “I gave them my chain. [They said], ‘Give me your wallet.’ I gave them my wallet.”
The victim said he complied with the robbers’ demands, immediately taking off his chain worth more than $2,000.
Hosein said the chain is sentimental to him because he said he made it with family jewels, including a diamond.
He said he also gave handed over his wallet with $500 in cash inside.
The wallet also had an AirTag inside which he used to track the empty wallet to the Florida Turnpike, but the thieves tossed it out of the SUV.
“I gave them my wallet, I went down to grab my phone. My bag, my cross body bag slipped off, and then the next guy came and said, ‘Give me your bag,’ and he took my bag,” said Hosein.
Inside the bag, Hossein said, was his gun.
“He jumped on me and startled me, and he’s already pointing the gun with his finger on the trigger,” he said. “Having that gun pointed to me, and it was like, you know, just seeing your life flash before your eyes, I mean, like, just do as they say.”
Hosein said the driver of the Tucson, also masked, got out of the vehicle as well.
The victim said it all happened so fast.
“The driver, he was at the back of the car, and he pointed a gun, a handgun,” he said.
He said he did what was asked of him and walked away in fear for his life.
“When I went back there and I pressed the elevator [button], I heard them reverse out, and I came back right here, and I dialed 911 immediately,” he said.
The victim doesn’t know exactly why he was targeted and followed but said it could’ve started either from his night out on Las Olas or when he went to the nearby Denny’s on Sunrise Boulevard.
“I’m like not expecting to be mugged at gunpoint or anything such,” he said.
Now the victim is warning others to be more vigilant.
“I feel so comfortable, so safe, but now everybody should be aware of their surroundings,” he said. “My experience, I don’t want anybody to go through what I’ve been through.”
Hossein said he wants pawn shop owners or Facebook Marketplace shoppers to know that his valuables were stolen.
