Thieves targeting expensive hair weaves smashed a vehicle through the front of a West End beauty supply store before daybreak Tuesday.
The break-in at Angie’s Beauty Supply and Salon in the 1100 block of Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in southwest Atlanta was the latest in a string of smash-and-grab burglaries where thieves stole hair extensions.
Burglars drove a Jeep Grand Cherokee through the front doors of the store as well as a iron security gate, doing extensive structural damage to the business, which is in a strip shopping center near Joseph Lowery Boulevard.
Once inside, they made a beeline for the wall where high-dollar “Indi Remi” hair weaves were displayed.
“When I walked in, I saw this empty wall, and everything else was fine,” said Won Jung, a cashier at the store.
Sheila Carroll is a regular customer at the store, and was outraged when she stopped by Tuesday morning and discovered what had happened.
“I’m raising girls, so we’re always in the beauty supply store,” she said.
“It’s just outrageous how these smash-and-grab thieves would hurt the whole community,” Carroll said.
“They think they’re doing something for themselves, they go in here, rob them and go and sell it on the street,” she said. “But you’re hurting everyone in the community. It causes them to go up on their prices.”
“I wish it would stop,” Carroll said.
While store employees didn’t yet know how much merchandise was taken in Tuesday’s burglary, other similar heists have netted the thieves as much as $50,000 in extensions.
Last Tuesday, three thieves smashed their way into the Beauty Masters II store in the Camp Creek Marketplace shopping center on Camp Creek Parkway.
Security video showed the trio frantically grabbing single-strand weaves from shelves before fleeing with hair valued at $50,000.
On June 18, thieves also broke into another beauty supply store owned by the same individual, the Beauty Master store on Headland Drive near Greenbriar Parkway.
In that break-in, four burglars who were in a black Chevrolet Suburban smashed out two front entry doors with a rock, then went straight to the display of Remi hair extensions on the wall behind the front counter.
Store manager Lucien Poko estimated the loss at $30,000.
Just weeks before that heist, burglars made off with an estimated $10,000 in hair extensions from the Beauty Emporium store on Riverdale Road in Clayton County.
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