Hair Salon

County police are investigating four burglaries at hair salons from Hanover to Pasadena early Thursday in which thieves smashed windows with rocks and got away with as much as $150.Police said the first two burglaries, at salons in Odenton and Hanover, might be related, but authorities are not sure about the other two.The burglaries began shortly after 3 a.m. when someone threw a rock through the front window of Reflections Hair Salon in the 8300 block of Piney Orchard Parkway. The burglar rummaged through a desk but left empty-handed, police said.

Two men jailed Tuesday on charges of breaking into seven hair salons and a candy store in Baltimore County are suspects in as many as 80 burglaries at businesses in six counties, authorities said yesterday.In the Baltimore County cases -- and in the others in Anne Arundel, Howard, Harford, Frederick and Montgomery counties -- burglars pried open back doors and stole money, police said.BTC Charged in the burglaries committed from November to March were Charles B. Kropfelder, 30, of the 100 block of Sipple Ave. in Baltimore, who was arrested at his job at an Owings Mills paint store, and Christopher M. Ayres, 26, who was taken into custody at his Timonium home in the 100 block of Northwood Road, police said.

County police, alerted by a silent alarm, met a burglar just before 4 a.m. yesterday as he was walking out of the Kent Island Crab Co. in the 2900 block of Mountain Road with a load of frozen seafood.The man dropped 10 boxes of shrimp and ran back inside when he saw Officer Andrew A. Klausing, police said. An accomplice ** ran out of the front door and into nearby woods, but was caught by Officers Michael A. Krok and Mark W. Robey, police said. Officer Klausing caught the other man when he tried to escape through a side door.

Twenty customers and employees were forced out of the Hair Cuttery at Cranberry Mall after a small amount of pepper gas was released accidentally in the store Friday afternoon.City police said an employee knocked a ring of keys, which also contained a canister of the gas, off a counter. When the employee bent to pick up the keys, she apparently touched the button and released the gas.Within seconds, people in the shop began to feel short of breath and a tightness of the throat and went outside the mall for air. Engines from Westminster and Reese and a medic unit were sent to the shop, but no one required medical treatment.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans are shearing one of the long-standing perks in the House: taxpayer-subsidized beauty and barber shops.The House's chief administrator was told yesterday to shut down the two enterprises and bring in private contractors to do the job."We want to make sure that the beauty and barber shops stop losing taxpayers' money," said Rep. Bill Thomas, a California Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee.For decades, House members and staff -- and even a few news reporters -- have availed themselves of the haircutting and styling services that are heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

A 22-year-old Hanover man told Annapolis police Sunday that he was struck in the leg by an object outside a city fast-food restaurant last week.Lizerra Melon Wideman of the first block of Briars Knoll Way said he was walking out of the McDonald's at 1941 West St. about 8 p.m. Aug. 3 when he heard a popping sound and felt a stinging sensation in his leg. He pulled up his pants and saw blood.Mr. Wideman didn't report the incident until Sunday, when the wound became infected, police said. He was treated at North Arundel Hospital and released.

When Donna (Meeks) Powell died in May 1993 of breast cancer at the age of 32, she left a husband, three children and her parents to mourn.The family was helped by Carroll Hospice, which offers physical and emotional support to terminally ill patients and their families.Now, a year later, Carroll Hospice is still in touch with the family and has suggested to a business that Mrs. Powell's children could benefit from its annual fund-raiser."We have a client who works at Hospice and they put us in touch with someone to help," said Sherry Waddell, owner of Attitudes Unlimited, a unisex hair salon in Hampstead.

The owners of a Columbia hair salon filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against a former employee, contending that they were defamed by her allegations that they fired her because she had an abortion.Robin George Davidson and his wife, Patrice Davidson, filed the countersuit in Howard Circuit Court earlier this month in response to the woman's lawsuit in which she is seeking nearly $4 million in damages from them.The Davidsons say the case has unfairly put them and their private beliefs into the public eye. They said the lawsuit has "mischaracterized" them and falsely affiliated them with the anti-abortion movement.

A hair salon on Ritchie Highway was robbed of $195 in cash and checks Monday morning after someone smashed the store's front window, police said.At 5:18 a.m., an officer noticed that the front window of A New You hair salon, 7400 Ritchie Highway, had been smashed. No evidence indicated how the window was broken, police said.The burglar took money from a cash register and rifled through some desk drawers, police said. Nothing else in the store was disturbed.

More than $22,000 paid to a mystery worker hired by Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean was deposited into two bank accounts under the name of an apparently fictitious organization -- the first of which was set up by the comptroller herself.Both bank accounts list the organization's address as that of a Northwest Baltimore hair salon owned by Mrs. McLean's sister and brother-in-law.One account has a Social Security number identical to that of the comptroller's 21-year-old daughter.