Remember when the prized target of smash-and-grab thieves was high end jeans? Well, not anymore. The newest target of smash-and-grab criminals in Atlanta is high end Yaki.
The price of fake hair that our Black women prize the most is set to skyrocket due to a recent rash of burglaries.
According to the Atlanta Journal newspaper, hair thieves drove a Jeep Grand Cherokee through the front doors of the popular Angie’s Beauty Supply and Salon in the 1100 block of Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard at dawn on Tuesday.
The thieves backed the jeep up and several men were caught on surveillance video running inside the store and making a beeline for the expensive “Indian Remi” hair on the wall behind the counter.
The men, all wearing masks to disguise their identities, can be seen frantically grabbing at the bundles of high end weave and leaving the cheaper hair. The thieves will turn around and sell the hair out of the trunk of their cars at a savings of pennies on the dollar.
Police are asking citizens and hair salons not to buy hair from the street hustlers.
Last Tuesday, three thieves also smashed their way into the Beauty Masters II store in the Camp Creek Marketplace shopping center on Camp Creek Parkway.
They were seen on video emptying the shelves of single strand weave before making their escape with hair valued at $50,000.
Sheila Carroll who is a regular customer at Angie’s Beauty Supply worries that the burglaries will cause the entire community to suffer.
“I’m raising girls, so we’re always in the beauty supply store,” she said.
“These smash and grab thieves, they’re harming their mothers… their families… because everyone uses beauty supply,” Carroll said. “And for them to do this, it hurts the whole community. It causes them to go up on their prices [and] for [Asian store owners] to be even more leery [of black people].”
“I wish it would stop,” Carroll said.
