Only Santa is meant to sneak around on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, the Grinch was out last week at the Voodoo Hair Studio on Renault Crescent, stepping all over the good tidings that one St. Albert couple created with their new business. The bad news, along with the damage and several thousand dollars’ worth of pilfered items, is that their precious family photos were taken along with a laptop computer.
Lauren Baril said that the break-in happened in the “early early” hours on Dec. 24 but wasn’t discovered until staff arrived in the mid-morning.
“One of my stylists went in there to do some work that day and she noticed that the door was broken in,” she said.
After five years as a home-based business, the Barils were finally able to pool their resources to open Voodoo up as a storefront in Riel Park with the grand opening taking place just two weeks ago. They put all of their savings into the salon, she added. Unfortunately, they hadn’t yet had a security system installed.
“My husband had the car started and he was going in that day because he thought, ‘You know what? It’s the holidays. I should probably go set up the alarm system.’ And it happened the night before. We’ve been trying to contact the neighbouring businesses, most of them don’t have cameras that point in our direction. There’s one next door that we’re still waiting to hear from though.”
She said how disheartening it was to have all of their hard work and perseverance set back by this act of injustice.
The burglar busted through the front door although nothing else on the interior was damaged. Taken were a desktop computer, a laptop, a monitor, a camera, a whole bunch of hair products, and some hairstyling equipment all worth approximately $6,000.
The laptop is a Macbook in an aluminum case from approximately 2007 or 2008.
“It looks like a (Macbook) Pro but it was just a regular Macbook. The only thing that could be distinguished is that it has an extra hard drive in it.”
The couple has four kids and the laptop serves as the family photo album.
“All of the pictures that we have of the kids over the last eight years, with the exception of anything that’s on Facebook, is gone. All of our videos and anything like that, some personal information, but mainly just we’re upset about the photos.”
That’s why they have put out a reward of $2,000 to get the photos back. Anyone with information can contact her through the studio at 780-470-0124 or via email at [email protected].
