Police sting operation busts an "illegal" nail salon

From the Washington Times:

Two Texas women were charged last week after an undercover police sting found they were allegedly offering salon services at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Laredo police said they launched investigations into both cases this month after receiving anonymous tips that the women were violating stay-at-home orders.

"Both of the violators independently solicited customers via social media," police said in a statement, the Laredo Morning Times reported. "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."

While this situation could easily be used as anecdotal evidence for the dangers of government overreach in an economic crisis, I think the real problem here is the bored police officers who decided to play Hero Cop by … uhhhh … stopping people from getting their eyelashes curled?

To be clear, we don't know what kind of sanitation protocols (if any) these criminal beauticians were following. It's probably still not the wisest thing to do during a pandemic, but I suppose there are some desperate people out there.

Thing is … when people do dumb things because they're desperate, throwing them in jail for 6 months doesn't do anything to improve their circumstances.

It's probably also worth noting that the perpetrators were both Latina women.

Texas women busted in undercover sting for allegedly offering salon services at home [Jessica Chasmar / The Washington Times]

Image: Zitona / Flickr (CC 2.0)