Conroe barbershop a cut above despite vandalism
COVID-19 didn’t keep Leon Apostolo from cutting hair, and neither will $6,000 in damage allegedly caused by a homeless man early Friday.
Despite boarded-up windows and a broken barber pole and flower pots, Apostolo, owner of Shepard’s Barber Shop in Conroe, was open for business Friday after spending the night cleaning up the mess.
“I’ve been up since 1:30 this morning,” Apostolo said. “All my windows were knocked out, my barber pole was knocked off.”
Conroe police responded to Shepard’s after getting a report of a man breaking the windows and causing other damage to the building.
After the arrival of police and a brief struggle, 55-yearold Troy Lee Reinhardt of Beaumont was arrested and charged with burglary of a building, a state jail felony. He was being held at the Montgomery County Jail without bail Friday.
According to a police report, several other criminal mischief incidents around the downtown area have taken place in the last several days. Reinhardt is a suspect in those cases, police said.
The incident comes after Apostolo was shut down during May because of Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders to close nonessential business to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Apostolo reopened in late May.
The barbershop has served downtown Conroe since 1912 in the old Little Jack West building. Apostolo started working there in 1978, at the age of 17, under the previous owner, the late Bob Shepard.
While Apostolo said the windows can be replaced, some of his memorabilia was destroyed and those sentimental items can’t be replaced.
“I had a real old Lance bubble gum jar, and they threw it out the window and broke it,” he said.
Apostolo thanked the Conroe Police Department for not only their quick response but for several officers helping him get the plywood to secure the building.
“They cut the boards and installed them on my shop,” he said. “If I hear someone bad-mouth police, I’m going to say, ‘Let me tell you something bud, these are good guys.’”