Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars worth of human hair have been getting stolen from salons and beauty shops all across the country.
Don’t believe me? Peep out what rolling out has learned from police department reports in different parts of the country:
In addition to the $150,000 Houston robbery this month, thieves have recently taken $10,000 in hair from a San Diego shop; $85,000 from a business in Missouri City, Texas; $10,000 from a shop in Dearborn, Mich.; and $60,000 from a business in San Leandro, Calif.
Now, here’s the jaw-dropping part in all of this: In many of the robberies, thieves bypassed seemingly valuable things such as flat screen TVs, cash registers and digital cameras and went straight for the hair.
Who knew that hair was so lucrative that it would inspire an organized crime wave not seen since the Gambino crime family ruled New York?!?
From Texas to Michigan to California and all parts in between, thieves have been breaking into stores and taking Remy hair, one of the most valuable types on the market, the New York Times reports.
Here’s why hair theft has become one of the easiest types of crimes to carry out. Not only do thieves rake in thousands of dollars worth of hair on each heist, but many are also able to quickly sell the hair on the street or on the Internet to turn a fast profit.
Usually, packages of hair have been showing up on the streets of L.A., Houston, Philadelphia and in the Bay Area and are selling for $25 per package as opposed to the retail price of $80 to $100. Police suspect many of the thieves have been taking custom orders for the hair and have even sold the stolen hair to stylists and customers.
“They’re selling it to stylists who work out of their [homes], they’re selling it on the street, they’re selling it out of the car,” Ms. Amosu of My Trendy Place told the media. “People who don’t want to pay the prices will buy it from the hustle man. It’s like the bootleg DVDs and the fake purses. But this is a quality product.”
The problem is, because of the large profit margin involved in the stolen-hair racket, police have reported a spike in violence associated with hair extension thefts. One store owner in suburban Detroit was murdered and others have been assaulted, some seriously.
In Dearborn, Mich., Jay Shin, the owner of Sunrise Beauty Supply, was killed during a holdup on March 15 by gunmen who stole 80 packages of hair extensions worth about $10,000. Two young men have been arrested.
Assaults have been reported even when only a small amount of hair is comparatively miniscule. In West Palm Beach, Fla., for example, a 16-year-old girl sprayed a clerk with pepper spray last year as she made off with extensions. And in Lawton, Okla., the police said a customer who ran out of a store with extensions tried to escape with the store owner clinging to the hood of her car. She wanted that hair badly.
Hiring security guards and installing expensive alarm systems have been to little avail. The profits inspire thieves to circumvent the best of preventative measures. In fact, many thieves approach salon owners they have robbed to try to sell them the stolen hair.
–terry shropshire
