‘If you cannot afford to pay us and feed our families because the systems are so backlogged, then you have to let us work…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Two Texas women were arrested in an undercover sting operation for operating a beauty salon inside their homes.
After the Laredo Police Department received an anonymous tip on April 15 that 31-year-old Ana Isabel Castro–Garcia and 20-year-old Brenda Stephany Mata were offering beauty services in their homes, despite the state’s shelter-in-place order, police officers launched an undercover sting to bust the two women.
Castro–Garcia was arrested after she agreed to provide an undercover officer with a manicure, and Mata was arrested after she reportedly agreed to perform an eyelash service for an undercover home.
Both women were charged with “Violation of Emergency Management Plan C/B,” according to KGNS-TV, and held in Webb County Jail on a $500 bond.
“Both of the violators independently solicited customers via social media,” the Laredo Police Department said in a statement.
“On both cases, an undercover officer working on the COVID-19 task force enforcement detail made contact with each solicitor to set up an appointment for a cosmetic, beauty service that is prohibited under the emergency ordinance,” it said.
The arrests occurred just days after a Dallas salon owner announced that she would reopen her salon despite the city’s orders that nonessential businesses must stay closed.
“I’m behind on my mortgage,” Shelly Luther, who owns Salon a la Mode, told CBS-21. “I know a lot of my stylists haven’t paid their mortgages. It’s either come in and make money to be able to feed your family or stay home and freak out.”
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins then sent Luther a cease and desist letter, but Luther turned around and ripped the letter to shreds, joining hundreds of protesters who had gathered outside Frisco City Hall this weekend.
“If you cannot afford to pay us and feed our families because the systems are so backlogged, then you have to let us work,” she said. “You have to.”