Thieves ram beauty store with car, steal $10,000 in hair extensions

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By Mike Morris and John Spink

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thieves rammed a car through the front door of a Clayton County beauty supply store early Thursday, then made off with an estimated $10,000 in hair extensions.

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An employee cleans up broken glass in front of Beauty Emporium, a beauty supply store on Riverdale Road, after thieves rammed a car through the front door.

John Spink, jspink@ajc.com An employee cleans up broken glass in front of Beauty Emporium, a beauty supply store on Riverdale Road, after thieves rammed a car through the front door.

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Don Kang, owner of the Beauty Emporium, looks over the damage Thursday.

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The theft follows a recent trend not only in metro Atlanta but across the country as well.

Don Kang, owner of the Beauty Emporium store in the 5600 block of Riverdale Road, said his store was hit around 3 a.m. Thursday.

“They rammed the front with a car, then they came in and stole all the expensive hair,” Kang said. “Four or five guys, wearing gloves and masks. They came in and they were out of here in about a minute.”

Kang said the thieves drove away in the same vehicle they used to crash through the glass front door, also damaging the brick façade of the store, which is in the River Shoals Village Shopping Center.

Thieves also crashed a vehicle through the front of a pawn shop across the street from Kang’s store two weeks ago, he said, and a cell phone store in the shopping center was recently robbed at gunpoint.

“It’s bad,” Kang said. “About a month ago, they tried to break through our back door, but they couldn’t get it open.”

Mark Deyton, manager of Wayfield Foods store adjacent to Kang’s shop, agreed that crime in the neighborhood “has been pretty rampant the past six to eight weeks. It’s a bad situation.”

“I think the county needs to address it from a patrol standpoint, since all these break-ins are happening in the wee hours of the morning,” Deyton said. “Maybe they need to beef up patrols here and start catching the people.

Kang said Thursday's burglary is also one of many in recent months at area beauty supply stores.

“The thieves are targeting beauty supplies,” he said. “They’re going after the expensive hair. It’s been happening to a lot of beauty supply [stores].”

And the burglaries aren't just in metro Atlanta.

The New York Times reported last week that thieves targeting extensions have recently stolen $150,000 in hair from a Houston salon, $90,000 in extensions from a beauty supply store in Chicago and $85,000 in hair from a store in Missouri City, Texas.

Other cities reporting similar thefts include San Diego, San Leandro, Calif., and Dearborn, Mich.

Packages of the most expensive hair type can cost as much as $200 in beauty supply stores, but hair extensions have turned up being sold out of car trunks for as little as $25, the Times said.