Hair Robbery Alert.

A new “hair robbery” phenomenon has emerged in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo.
A group known as “piranhas” is actually stealing women’s luscious locks and even have a preference for straight hair.
According to Globovision, these robbers roam malls hunting for victims whose hair they can cut and sell to beauty salons to be used for extensions.
The methods of the robbers can be rather violent — some victims have been held by gunpoint and forced to tie their hair into a ponytail in order to cut it off.
While many salon owners do not buy hair unless they know where it has come from, many are looking the other way due to the increased demand.

According to hair stylist Jhonatan Morales, interviewed by Globovision, the request for hair extensions has gone up by 30 percent.Synthetic hair in the country costs anywhere from $40 to $160, depending on its quality. But natural hair can cost more than $500.

 A Maracaibo resident Egmari Villarreal (pictured above) explains:

"You have to see it to believe it. We're not going to be able to have long hair anymore. As a woman, this is something traumatic. It's happening downtown, at the beach or at the mall, where you find a lot of young women. The thieves grab them by the hair, pull out some scissors and cut their hair. Then they sell it at beauty or hair salons."

Another resident Mariana Rodriguez told Globovision that she was walking through a popular mall when she saw two women coming toward her.

"I thought they were going to steal my cell phone, because I had it in my hand at the time, but they took out scissors," she said. "They did not give me a chance to think or to run or anything. And when I looked, I no longer had any hair. More than 8 inches gone.

To combat the problem, the mayor of Maracaibo, Eveling de Rosales, has said they are adding more security guards at the malls where this is occurring in hopes of preventing this from happening again.
Unfortunately for the women of Maracaibo, until this problem is resolved the recommendation from city officials is that ladies avoid wearing their hair down or in a ponytail.