ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Albuquerque police say business owners can breathe a sigh of relief after Kelly Shugart has been arrested.
Shugart has been linked to at least seventeen robberies this summer, and detectives are working on more charges.
Jessica Carothers Shugart, owner of Blow Blow Dry Bar in Northeast Heights and City of Waxing, has targeted both of her businesses over the course of two weeks in July.
“It’s terrifying to walk into a business in the morning where windows have been removed and broken into and stolen,” Carothers said. “It definitely makes people feel very uneasy.”
Her surveillance cameras captured Shugart and another man entering the living room, cutting through the entire window pane. Police have seen this technique in several other robberies. Surveillance videos from several boutique businesses also showed a silver Subaru and a woman with red hair.
Shugart now faces 69 charges ranging from conspiracy to fraud.
“It was clear to me that this guy was going to be in jail,” Carothers said. But she knew there was an unlikely chance.
“As a reasonable person, I can’t wrap my mind around why we let the police work so hard to catch some of these people,” Carothers said. “I can’t understand this and I’m asking people to please help us because it’s really frustrating.”
Desperation is bleeding through Albuquerque’s small business community, she said, especially since some believe Shugart didn’t act alone.
“I want everyone to have a safe work environment and when people come in and take what’s not theirs and there seems to be no consequence for that, it seems incredibly frustrating,” Carothers said.
