78 Year-Old Man Assaulted Over Nutella Samples

A 78 year old man was assaulted by a fellow Costco shopper after the two got into a dispute over a Nutella sample.

I t’s creamy, it’s chocolatey, it’s apparently worth assaulting a 78 year-old man over. Nutella is serious business. On a Sunday morning trip to Costco, 78 year-old Sahak Sahakian spotted 24 year-old Burbank resident Derrick Gharabighi loading up on Nutella waffles from a sample cart. Sahakian says he went to grab one himself, but Gharabighi took them all for himself.

“He takes two, three of them, left one,” Sahakian told CBS Los Angeles, “I want to take that one, and he catch my hand. I say, ‘What are you doing? Let me eat this one.’ ”

For unknown reasons, the simple request threw Gharabighi into a rage. The dispute got heated, and Gharabighi punched the 78 year-old shopper in the face. “He hit me, and the blood started,” Sahakian said. He was hospitalized with a one-inch cut and some swelling above his eye.

Nutella is a popular hazelnut spread sold in most regions of the U.S.

As for Gharabighi, he was arrested on suspicion of elder abuse. Police set his bail at $50,000. He is due to make a court appearance this week. If convicted, Gharabighi faces up to 11 years in state prison.

This wasn’t Gharabighi’s first run-in with the law. Over the last three years, he’s been convicted twice for trespassing. Earlier this year, he was convicted of charges relating to theft and drug trafficking.

Sahakian says he would like mercy on Gharabighi, under the condition that authorities teach him his actions were wrong. He told CBS “I don’t want nothing to happen, but only the government … [or] the police to teach him that this is bad.”