Carol Roney says more than 20 wigs for cancer patients were stolen during the break-in.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

VERNON - A Vernon business owner is still reeling after a large group of thieves made off with more than $20,000 worth of items, including wigs for cancer patients, in a brazen and unnerving break-in.

Beauty Haven owner Carol Roney says as many as seven people broke into her salon on 30 Avenue and used the store’s laundry hampers, recycling bins and garbage cans to load up on products.

“They would leave and then come back to pack away more,” Roney says of the Sept.12 break-in, which was caught on video surveillance.

After prying the door open around 2:45 a.m., Roney says the suspects spent almost three hours in the store. At first, only a couple of men gained entry, but more, including a few women, showed up later. In total, Roney counted seven different individuals who took part in the theft.

“They just went through the place taking all kinds of stuff,” Roney says. “It just creeps you out that they were rummaging through everything.”

Among the items taken were individual stylists’ scissors and other personal tools of the trade, as well as more than 20 wigs.

“We treat a lot of cancer patients and style the wigs for them,” Roney says. “There were wigs stolen that people were coming to pick up, that were ordered specially for them. They’d been waiting for them to come in.”

In her 40 years running the business, she’s been broken into before but never to this extent.

“It’s really unnerving,” she says. “It really makes you nervous.”

She reported the break-in to police and provided video footage, but has not been informed of any arrests in the case. She says the store is taking extra precautions to prevent another break-in.

Roney’s is one of numerous break-and-enters affecting residents and merchants in Vernon. From July to September, the Vernon RCMP detachment received just under 40 reports of commercial break-ins, plus 86 residential break-ins.

Combined with an increasing number of thefts from vehicles, police say property-related crime is up almost nine per cent.

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