TULSA, Okla. — Someone broke into Bonray Barber & Co. in downtown Tulsa on Tuesday, temporarily shutting the barbershop down.
Barbers at Bonray are on what they say is a "vacation they didn't ask for" as thieves took all of their tools. The business has been in downtown near 3rd Street and Cincinnati Ave. since 2017. They’ve never had any issues until now. Andrew Wilkins, one of the barbers at Bonray, got to work Tuesday morning 30 minutes before the shop opens and walked in to see what was left.
“The first thing I saw was the vent and I thought maybe the owner was getting some work done and the workers just forgot to put the vent back up,” Wilkins said.
The thief used an air duct to get into the shop. Wilkins discovered all the drawers were empty, that’s when he called the owner and police and was forced to cancel their clients.
“We literally just sent out a text that said 'Hey guys. the shop's been robbed and all of our tools were taken so we're going to work on getting back in the shop as quick as we can but for now we have to close down,'” said barber Makaslyn Holt.
Owner Luke Palmer says surprisingly the thief was respectful with the space only taking clippers, shears, combs, and brushes.
“So they left our phone, our P.O.S (Point of Sale) system, they left the liquor on the shelves. I think we got away pretty lucky, but they’ve basically given us a vacation that we didn’t ask for this week,” Palmer said.
With the nature of the burglary, they all believe they were intentionally targeted.
“I guess people are willing to do anything at this point so you really need to make that you check every single thing not just the doors and windows but check your AC vents, check all that stuff," Palmer said. "An attack like this it’s not only personal on us but I think it’s a personal attack on the people who support this business.”
While they are trying to stay hopeful, they have one request of the community.
“I’d just like to encourage people to keep an eye out for a large set of barber tools," Holt said. "It is some high-end stuff. We use really nice tools so it’s pretty noticeable.”
It’s going to cost about $10,000 to replace their tools and get back to doing what they do best.
A GoFundMe is raising money to pay for the tools and to pay their employees while they are out of work. With the generosity of customers, family, friends, community members and other businesses, it has raised about half of the needed funds so far.
They hope to reopen next Tuesday but that could change if they don’t get new tools in time.
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