A barbershop in downtown Los Angeles is blasting the toddler-favorite “Baby Shark” song to deter homeless individuals from setting up camp outside the business.
Shalom Styles, CEO and founder of Styles Barber Lounge, spoke with KTLA on Sunday, explaining his ongoing efforts to protect his shop and keep his customers safe and comfortable.
“I’ve been making sure since I came to this street that there’s no homeless, there’s no tents, and if I see something, I clean it up,” said Styles. “I’ll see cracked glass on the corners, because they’re cracking windows sometimes, but on 11th Street, they’re not – I have surveillance.”
Styles explained that another effort he’s put in place with the help of property management includes security cameras that make a noise to alert anyone making motion nearby.
“When people are walking past and forth and loitering, the cameras beep, but the camera sound isn’t loud enough. There’s cars going by at all hours of the day, also not loud enough,” said Styles. “So the speaker playing ‘Baby Shark’ is gonna make everybody move, or bring the news and have the city do something about it.”
In a recent encounter, Styles said he had to tell a naked woman to leave after he found her sitting unclothed on his bench.
“It was bad, it was an eyesore for business,” said Styles. “She started screaming at the top of her lungs, she kicked her shoes off, threw them and screamed for probably 10 minutes.”
Styles said police and other city efforts haven’t helped, but that he hopes the city will try harder, as these issues seem to be growing around his shop.
“We can’t have the encampment grow here,” said Styles, talking about the music choice. “It’s annoying for them to do what they’re doing to the business, so I’d rather they just be annoyed.”
