In the

in the 1970s, Cambodia was ruled by a dictator named Pole Pot.

In what came to be known as the Cambodian genocide,

his Khmer Rouge army slaughtered millions of their own citizens,

often in areas known as the killing fields.

Millions more fled, refugees poured into Thailand and many eventually made it to the US.

One of those people was the guy named Ted Noy. In 1975 he arrived in Orange

County, California, outside LA with his wife and three kids. And he decided to open a donut shop.

He was working at a gas station and he was working the night shift, like the graveyard shift.

And across the street there was this like lit up donut sign.

And in my mind it's like this like this beacon of

goodness of America and he so he would go there and get donuts and something in

this guy's mind was like donuts like I can I can do something with this. This is Greg Nichols. He's a journalist who's written

about Ted Noy and the donut industry in California. Ted enrolled in a management training

program at a local donut chain called

Winchells. He learned the business and saved up enough money to buy his own place.

opened his first shop in Lahambra and it was called Christie's. The old school

donut in the box that the cop station has every day.

Around this time, the situation in Cambodia got worse.

More refugees poured into Southern California. And all of a sudden, there were tons of people who were looking for work, looking for some kind of opportunity to create a life.

And Ted Noy saw that as a big opportunity for him as well.

So we started buying up donut shops.

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