San Gabriel wig shop repeatedly targeted by thieves

Wig shop targeted repeatedly by criminals

A wig store in the San Gabriel Valley has been targeted at least 10 times by criminals.

LOS ANGELES - The owners of Terry's Wigs in San Gabriel say they've been targeted by burglars at least 10 times since 2020. 

Margarita Torres says the family business has been providing wigs to customers, many of whom have cancer or alopecia, for three decades.  

After a December break-in, where suspects broke the front windows and ran off with thousands of dollars in wigs, they expanded their security system with more cameras. More recently, they've been keeping the doors locked, even during business hours, buzzing in customers who have made appointments. That's because there seems to be a trend of people coming in and grabbing just enough merchandise to not go over the $950 threshold that keeps criminal filings to misdemeanors. 

Last week, a woman was seen on surveillance video taking a wig worth a few hundred dollars. In 2022, a woman allegedly took five wigs. 

It's gotten to the point, Torres explains, that she's hesitant to call police or file a crime report because her insurance would go up, as it has repeatedly in the last year. She's also spoken to LA DA Nathan Hochman, who she supported during the election. There's even a sign on her storefront reading that the shop is a "protected business" where the theft task force would be prosecuting. 

So far, she has yet to hear that any of the suspects in her cases have been caught, let alone prosecuted. 

What they're saying:

The DA's office released the following statement, "Holding serial retail thieves accountable is a top priority for our office. We recognize the devastating effects of retail theft on small business owners, employees, customers and entire communities. Since Proposition 36 went into effect in December 2024 and gave law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to arrest, investigate and prosecute retail theft, our office has taken aggressive action, filing more than 1,900 theft cases against repeat offenders and thousands more against non-recidivists and perpetrators of robberies.

Our substantial case filings, along with our Retail Theft Task Force stickers, aim to deter criminals with a warning: Prosecutors and law enforcement are working in lockstep to hold retail thieves accountable to the full extent of the law. Anecdotally, law enforcement and business owners have told us that our strong partnership with law enforcement, increased prosecutions and distribution of Task Force warning stickers are making a difference in deterring would-be criminals. However, we recognize that there is more work to be done and ending a culture of impunity for retail theft won't happen overnight. We are committed to fighting retail theft and will continue working with law enforcement and retailers to do everything in our power to hold serial retail thieves accountable."