Resident Recounts Daytime Mugging at Gunpoint

Jim Coufal, a 25-year West Hollywood resident, recently shared a personal account of being robbed in broad daylight. “I’ve never spoken at a meeting before, so I’m going off script,” he began, addressing the Public Safety Commission. He noted that hearing prior speakers like Wendy Goldman prompted him to address the commission with “a slightly similar tone but a little bit different in a personal way”.

Coufal, a 40-year Los Angeles resident and homeowner on Harper Avenue, recalled West Hollywood’s past: “I’ve seen West Hollywood go through its Renaissance…the day when we redid the Boulevard and all these beautiful stores came and we had lots of retail and restaurants and it was really a heyday.” He contrasted this with a decline over the years: “I’ve also watched it decline and always thought West Hollywood would be where I would retire.” His perspective shifted after a traumatic incident.

He described a mugging on Cynthia Street: “The other day I was walking from the San Vicente post office back to my home on Harper…about five minutes into my walk on Cynthia in front of Heritage, almost to Palm, I was on my phone talking to a friend and all of a sudden a car pulled up, opened up the doors at gunpoint and mugged me at three in the afternoon.” He shouted for help—”I started screaming…please help, send police”—and observed, “I probably could have been shot by yelling but that was my instinct.” Since then, “I don’t even really walk anywhere other than a main street now”, he said.

Coufal tied this to broader issues: “We have an extreme problem with the homeless…there’s at least 10 or 15 persons or people asking for handouts or having some type of an episode,” alongside, “break-ins in our building, in our garage, on a regular basis” and “mail stolen on a regular basis”. He concluded, “I really would like to plead with the city to take a look to see what’s going on here and see what we can do about some of these issues.”