East Tulsa Business Owner ‘Devastated' After Vandals Strike Twice

Lacie Lowry, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- An east Tulsa business owner says she's sick of vandals.

Mary Jane Marris owns a hair salon a few doors down from a shop that burned in a fire early Tuesday. Since that fire, someone has smashed two huge pieces of glass on her store front.

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Broken glass greeted stylists arriving for work at Shear Pleasure Salon near 21st and Garnett. A huge window was broken to pieces and the store totally exposed.

Stylist Lynn Harris discovered the mess.

"The couch had been pushed out, the TV was kinda knocked over, the plant was knocked over, the stuff on the cabinets was all over the place," Harris said.

Mary Jane Marris has owned the salon for more than twenty years. Nothing was stolen in the vandalism, but she still feels robbed.

"It was devastating, because the glass is so expensive," Marris said.

Marris knows the price of window panes all too well. The night after a fire at a nearby business early Tuesday morning, someone smashed the glass on her front door - a $300 hit.

Friday's mess, which came two days later, will cost even more.

"There are places around here that aren't even replacing their glass because they can't afford to because we've had so much vandalism," Marris said.

Now the shop is worried about future attacks and how to pay for repairs.

"If we have to pay out more then we have raise our prices potentially and we don't want to have to do that. Everybody is trying to hold on to that dollar in their pocket and we're the same way," Harris said.

The salon will have to deal with plywood for now, knowing that customers will keep coming back, despite the scenery.

"We're just going to keep on going. We've been here 22 years and a couple of broken windows is not going to stop us," Harris said.

The Tulsa Fire department hasn't ruled on the cause of Tuesday morning's fire. The salon already has a working alarm and plans to install surveillance cameras soon.

They want people to be on the lookout for vandalism and report it to police.