By Tim Binnall
Police in the Netherlands are calling for cooler heads to prevail in a bizarre barbershop battle that has become shockingly violent. According to a local media report, the weird war began late last year when a hair salon in the city of Vlaardingen was struck by vandals. Authorities soon came to suspect that the crime was not an isolated incident, as two other barbershops were subsequently rocked by explosions in May and August. While the specific reasoning for the attacks is uncertain, it is believed that they stem from the targeted businesses charging below the standard market price, raising the ire of competitors who have lost customers to the cheaper cuts.
Rather than respond by reducing their own prices or improving the overall experience for their guests, it would appear that the impacted barbershops instead opted for violence, with two additional incidents occurring earlier this month. Last Friday, one of the discount salons was riddled with bullets and another branch of the business was targeted with an explosive device. As one might imagine, authorities in Vlaardingen are at their wit's end of the strange war being waged between the barbershops. "I am absolutely fed up with it," mayor Frederik Zevenbergen declared, "time and again, society is shaken by an attack, by violence. This has to stop."
Particularly frustrating to officials in Vlaardingen is that, despite their best efforts to quell the conflict, the barbershop battle has continued to escalate. "We have deployed just about everything at our disposal: camera surveillance, preventive stop-and-search, and the designation of a 'security risk zone," the mayor explained, lamenting that nothing has been successful in stopping the attacks. "We cannot station a police officer on every street corner," Zevenbergen mused, "it's simply not feasible." With that in mind, until peace can be brokered between the warring barbershops, Vlaardingen resident may be wise to let their hair grow a bit longer than usual, lest they wind up being caught in the crossfire.