Burglaries add to Gastonia barbershop owner’s worries

GASTONIA, N.C. — A barbershop owner in Gastonia says his shop has been targeted by thieves four times in recent years, and during the most recent break-in, they came back multiple times.

Video shows a suspect break into the store, rip the cash drawer off the shelf and run off with it. Now, on top of the burglary, Elvis Chocobar will have to pay to repair the damage from the recent break-in.

The thief took a few seconds to find the office and the drawer, and he must have realized it was empty because he came back two more times within 20 minutes.

“[I] wake up every morning to come to work like a lot of hard-working people, why can’t they get a job instead of trying to ruin people’s livelihood?” Chocobar told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon with the help of Telemundo Charlotte.

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He said this burglar couldn’t get his hard-earned money, but this failed attempt cost him about $4,000. Chocobar said there have been three other break-ins at the salon on West Franklin Boulevard in the last five years.

“Took about $300, but it’s more about the damage that they cause, like them breaking the glasses, them breaking the furniture. That’s all money that [I have] to spend to fix up the shop and it all adds up to a lot of money,” Chocobar said.

Chocobar owns the Elvis Beauty Salon with his wife. They say with an increase in ICE activity, it’s been difficult to keep customers recently. He said anything that hurts profits at work hits home too.

“The shop is the way [we] feed the family,” Chocobar said. “This is all [I] know, and the way [we] sustain family here.”

Police haven’t been able to find the suspects in the three cases they responded to.

Chocobar said they had search dogs and several officers Wednesday, but officers couldn’t get a lead.

Right now, business is slow and this makes things so much harder. He says he hopes new bars on the door and windows will help stop thieves because an empty cash register hasn’t taught them that breaking into this business isn’t worth it.

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