The Mystery of the Barbershop

By Alicia Dorr in News on Mar 8, 2006 10:05PM

Barbershops in Chicago have a whole history and culture of their own, but a guy on the Northwest side sort of took that to a different level recently.

Apparently the guy was using the barbershop building—a relatively benign structure—for fencing (not that kind) stolen goods. What a caper! As the case unfolds it seems the cops are convinced that not only was he hiding stolen jewelry, precious stones and "other valuables" (which we can only assume means gold medallions) in the store, but he was not even trying to make Walter's Barber Shop seem like a barber shop (oh, you know). They noticed he wasn't giving any haircuts—at all! The kicker? "'There was no hair on the floor.'"

This all started when the man was arrested for buying a gold chain off an undercover cop, who allegedly claimed the piece was stolen, but he maintains the real hoax are these charges. He said he has jewelry in the store because he is also a jeweler, and that when the undercover cop came up to him he didn't know the goods were stolen. As for the no hair on the floor bit? "'I'm clean,' he told them. 'Is that a crime?'"

But the cops aren't buying it: "'He's a major fence,'" a sergeant said. And then (hopefully) said, "Book 'im.'"

After all this we can't help but take a second look at our friendly neighborhood shops and wonder if any of them are fronts. For example, those mild-mannered launderers on the west side? Try money launderers.