The salon was already closed for the night.
But that did not deter the burglar who drove up, pulled some kind of stone out of his trunk, hurled it through the front door window, scooted inside, then filled his bucket full of hair product before driving off.
Hair product?
Police are not certain how it's being fenced, but smash-and-grab burglaries targeting salon products have become a trend in San Pedro, said Detective Thomas Baran of the Los Angeles Police Department's Harbor Division.
Baran counts at least four such burglaries this year, the most recent early Sunday morning at the Andres Hair Studio in the Garden Village center on Western Avenue. Moments earlier, there had been an attempt to break into a nearby salon, but the glass held. Not clear is whether it was the same burglar in the earlier cases.
The same salon previously had been burglarized in March, said co-owner Corinn Albano. Since then, she and her partner added security cameras, and now are contemplating retractable steel gating to protect the shop after hours. She intends to talk with other shopkeepers about hiring security guards.
"It's hard," Albano said. "We pay high rent, and trying to keep our doors open, this keeps happening."
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The hair product taken in the most recent burglary was mainly Biolage, a well-known brand, but far from the most expensive label. Albano and Baran suspect a bucketfull might fetch $200 or so if fenced for resale on the street or perhaps at a swap meet.
A hooded sweatshirt largely obscured the face of the burglar who broke into Andres. The car appeared to be an older Honda Accord, its license plate not visible to the security camera.
Anyone with information is asked to email Detective Baran at 36364@LAPD.online.
