When an armed thief attempted to rob a beauty supply store, she likely thought she had found an easy target. However, the fed-up shop owner quickly made her regret her choices after he grew suspicious and confronted her. The altercation that followed was caught on must-see security camera video.
Sunjung Kim, the owner of Hair Plus Beauty Supply in Dallas, Texas, experienced a close call when he noticed an alleged shoplifter attempting to steal products from his shop and decided to confront the woman over the suspected theft after she had made her way to the front of the store.
“I noticed she stole something,” Kim recalled. “I told her to return the item or pay back to us, but she was trying to run away.”
Rather than let the woman get away, Kim engaged in an argument with her. During the verbal confrontation, the woman repeatedly asked, “$20 for what?” to which Kim responded, “Lashes and lash glue.” However, the woman refused to return the stolen fake lash products, and instead, a scuffle ensued as things rapidly escalated.
When Kim grabbed at the woman in an attempt to retrieve the stolen items, the woman punched him while issuing a warning, saying that if he hit her, she’d shoot him — and she wasn’t joking. In fact, when Kim punched the woman back and then kicked her, she reached into her purse and pulled out a gun, taking her shoplifting attempt to a whole other level. But, again, Kim was undeterred.
Even though the woman was armed, Kim still engaged in a physical altercation with her, hoping to subdue her as the two wrestled over control of the gun.
“I didn’t have much time to think. But I just saw her gun right away. I just dashed her to not shoot,” said Kim.
Much to the horror of customers inside the store, the firearm went off as patrons inside ducked for cover. Luckily, the only thing harmed was the floor, which suffered a bullet hole, before Kim was able to grab the gun and hand it to a coworker. However, things were far from over.
For the next 11 minutes, the shop owner was forced to restrain the shoplifter-turned-armed-robber until police could arrive. Wild surveillance video captured the brave owner’s bold but successful attempt to stop the theft.
According to Sunjung Kim, shoplifting has been a big problem at his store. In fact, he admitted that he and his employees put up signs to try to deter theft. The signs posted include a most wanted list of people who they say have stolen from the beauty supply shop. Although this seems extreme, Kim explained that theft takes a bigger toll on his bottom line than most people realize.
“It’s like a small pieces of item like lash glues. But in our case, we are not the Walmart. We are not the Target. It’s not a supermarket. It’s like a small size of the retail stores in the community,” Kim said.
However, even though he is fed up with theft, seeing his wife and two young daughters’ reactions to what happened that day has made him reconsider his own actions. He’s since realized that his merchandise isn’t worth risking his life.
“I don’t want them to lose their father. I don’t want them to, like, lose her like husband,” Kim said. “I was lucky. Yeah. Thank God. But I wouldn’t do it again.”
It sounds like the beauty supply shop owner learned a valuable lesson, but more importantly, it would seem that the suspect learned the hard way that it would have been better had she just bought the lashes. Although her identity wasn’t immediately released, WFAA did report that she was charged with first-degree armed robbery and was ordered held on a $75,000 bond. Now, that’s some expensive lashes.
Hopefully, other potential thieves, especially those who believe shoplifting isn’t a big deal, can look at this story and realize that crime doesn’t pay. Instead of being out $20, this woman was left facing serious charges that could result in serious jail time. I don’t know about you, but a set of lashes is hardly worth ruining your life.
