Sickened. That’s how esthetician Leah Verrier described her reaction when she responded to an alarm at her salon in Cochrane on Easter Monday.
“When I opened the camera footage, I saw the door here was wide open, which isn’t normal for that time of night. Nobody’s in the building at that time either, so I immediately phoned the police,” she said.
“The police came to the premises, they secured everything, they said it was fine. When I looked and was able to rewind the footage, I could see two men had broken in.”
Forty seconds is all Verrier says it took to cripple her business called Reviver and Co. Laser Hair Removal and Skin Aesthetics, which she opened in April 2025.
“I do advanced laser hair removal and skin treatments, clinical facials, peels, micro-needling etc.”
But most of those treatments require a very specialized laser machine — hers worth about $100,000, but some selling for up to $300,000.
“I never knew this could happen to me,” said Verrier. “I mean, the size of the laser itself is about 500 pounds (225 kilograms), so I wasn’t very worried that it was going to get taken in the night. It’s pretty sickening because that was a huge investment for me as a solo business, to get that device in here to use all my clients. So very shocking.”
Get daily National news
Anyone operating the machine also needs specialized training.
But that hasn’t stopped the thieves.
Police confirm Verrier’s laser is one of many that have recently been stolen in Alberta.
Just eight days before hers was taken, the RCMP confirmed a similar theft took place in Airdrie.
Meanwhile, Edmonton police told Global News they’ve responded to nine break-ins where similar high-end laser machines were stolen.
Doug King, a criminal justice professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the crimes have all the hallmarks of being targeted.
“Perhaps even stolen on consignment. So is that what’s happening here — these things are being sold by someone who set up a business and is agreeing to buy something, you know, ‘Don’t tell me where you got it, but sure, I’ll buy it from you,'” said King.
“It isn’t just two or three random people walking into one of these places and saying, oh, I’m going to take that. Just random people wouldn’t know what they were looking at. So they’re going in. It’s targeted. They’re taking something, which tells me they must be pretty assured that they have a market to resell it on.”
While all the machines likely have serial numbers, King said they could also be filed down or taken off before being sold, adding to the difficulty police would have investigating such thefts — even if the stolen laser was sold to another salon.
“Police can’t just go in and say, ‘Oh, we want to look at your equipment,'” said King. ” They can’t do that. Any kind of search has to be based on reasonable grounds to believe that the search will produce evidence of an existing crime.”
In a email sent to Global News, Edmonton police said they also believe the thefts were targeted and are sharing information with police in other locations to determine any possible links between the crimes.
Vanessa de Mello of the Esthetic Institute Training Center said it’s disheartening to hear about the thefts but it’s also a reminder for other people in the industry to take precautions to protect their businesses, because they are all at risk.
“I would say, number one, you want to have a central alarm system in place. I would also be checking to make sure that, you know, if there’s an option for you to have the police dispatched immediately after hours, that that would be something you consider doing. My understanding is that, you know, the thieves that are doing this, even if the alarms are going off,” said de Mellow.
“I also would consider GPS devices on the laser machines to make sure that they are trackable and finally, ensure that those machines are locked down at night as well.”
“They did know what they were looking for,” concedes Verrier, who is still offering other services that don’t required the laser, while also working with the insurance company and searching for a replacement laser.
“The lead time on these are — if you can get them quickly — maybe four to six weeks, but that’s after insurance is all settled so that’s kind of up in the air right now on when we’re going to get a new device,” said Verrier.
Regardless, she admits, “We’re going to be out of pocket a lot on this.”
Comments
Comments closed.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.
Please see our Commenting Policy for more.