Thieves steal $35,000 in wigs from store for cancer patients in Solana Beach

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — Staff at a Solana Beach store are trying to get back to normal after thieves broke in and made off with some expensive specialty items.

“All the mannequins were thrown on the floor,” said Marisol Cortes, manager of Strut Hair Solutions on Santa Fe Dr. in Lomas. “It was a shock to us to see our store vandalized like this.”

Security camera footage shows two masked thieves breaking in around 3.30am on Monday morning and then filling garbage bags with wigs and hair extensions.

Helena Gibson, who has owned the store for 13 years, said it was a profit of $35,000.

“One of the officers counted that he had taken 36 wigs, approximately 28 hair clips and several extensions,” according to Gibson.

The hair pieces were produced for women undergoing chemotherapy or suffering from alopecia or hair loss due to Covid.

“Officers were saying this was happening more and more because they couldn’t get into Target and Nordstrom and other things because they had armed guards,” Gibson said.

He also said the alarm at his shop never went off and he is currently trying to resolve the issue with his security system provider.

“They say they’re not responsible,” Gibson said.

He wanted to share the lesson he learned to help other business owners avoid similar situations.

“Check your alarm contracts and make sure you have some type of insurance coverage in case there is an outage and it doesn’t work,” Gibson added.

The owner is also considering installing safety bars at the front of the building to provide more protection.

Gibson said a late-model White Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup truck was seen leaving the scene. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the San Diego Police Department at 619-531-2000.