Strange News: Weave Thieves Steal $230,000 Of Human Hair

By Julia Weeman in News on Jul 8, 2012 3:00PM

35th Street Beauty Supply in the Southeast side was robbed around 2 a.m. Saturday morning by thieves who were only after one thing - hair extensions. They hammered their way in through an adjoining vacant storefront and filled six large duffel bags with the high-end natural hair extensions women use for hair weaves. "They knew what they were doing. They didn't take any of the cheap stuff," said store owner Don Shin in an interview with the Tribune.

The three thieves managed to get away with $230,000 in human hair from Shin's shop. Shin explained that he was renovating the adjacent storefront with plans to expand and hadn't installed alarms yet. Once the intruders smashed through the wall, they evaded motion detectors by crawling along the floor and then ripped out the alarm system wiring.

As strange as this sounds, it's not the first time hair thieves have struck in Chicago. A similar incident happened in April 2011 at a beauty supply store in the 600 block of West Roosevelt Road. The robbers involved also targeted the most expensive real hair brands and left with $80,000 worth of hair. They left the money in the shop untouched and there still have been no arrests in that case.