A hairdresser was shocked beyond belief during what began as a routine haircut. The client had come in for a straightforward trim and style, but as she began her work, the hairdresser suddenly screamed. Hidden within the man’s hair was something so unexpected that they had no choice but to contact the police.
Aiden had an essential appointment for work that day, so it was important for his hair to look perfect. He needed a little trim and touch-up of his color, usually no problem for owner Evelyn. But both Aiden and Evelyn could never have imagined what she found in his hair that day. She cheerfully grabbed her comb and scissors but was startled when she combed his hair to the side.
“What the hell is this?” Evelyn screamed while dropping her scissors. She took a giant step backward in terror. Aiden saw her face go white in the mirror but couldn’t see what she was looking at. Aiden was confused as to why Evelyn was behaving so weirdly. Her finger was pointing at the back of his head, so he asked her what was happening, but the hairdresser was too busy and startled by the situation to react to Aiden. She gulped and called for her colleagues.
“What’s going on?” Aiden yelled to the staff who gathered around him. Fortunately for him, there was one hairdresser who did take some notice of her surroundings and wasn’t just concerned with what was stuck in his head. She opened her mouth and said, “There’s something stuck on your head that doesn’t belong there.”
Aiden froze. “What do you mean something is stuck on my head that doesn’t belong there? Get it off then!” he shouted desperately, but he watched in the mirror as nobody moved a muscle.
“It’s hard to say what it is really,” said one of the hairdressers who moved forward slowly. The silence was deafening as everyone watched the hairdresser approach.
“Well, what can you see?” Aiden eventually asked. The woman was startled by the sudden sound of his voice. She carefully moved his hair to the side and gasped. “It looks like a beetle, but it isn’t moving at all,” she exclaimed.
“He got a beetle in his hair?” Aiden started to shake his head violently, which caused all the hairdressers to scream and jump back. You would expect such an animal to crawl or flee away and not sit in someone’s hair, so Aiden was a bit frightened. What was going on? He needed to do something.
Carefully, he turned his head and looked in the mirror, but to his disappointment, nothing appeared. The beetle was precisely on the back of his head. Aiden sighed and mustered up courage. “Tell me when I’m getting close, okay?” he said, knowing that none of the hairdressers would take action themselves. His right hand trembled slightly as he moved it toward the back of his head.
“Slowly, a little to the left. Yes, now a little to the back,” one of the hairdressers said, giving Aiden directions. He was close, so he took a deep breath. Slowly but surely, his hand moved further until the hairdresser gasped, “You’re touching it.”
Then it all happened very fast. Aiden’s hand moved lightning fast through his hair as he managed to pick the animal up, pulling some of his hair with it. Then, as he held it in front of him, he exclaimed, “What is this disgusting thing?”
It looked very much like a beetle, but it didn’t move at all. Was it dead? Aiden invited those around him to see what it was. Everyone stared at it, not knowing that something made this beetle immensely special, but they would soon find out.
The beetle shone under the bright lights of the hair salon. It was mesmerizing. “I don’t think this is a beetle, ladies,” Aiden said. It felt cold and did not move at all, even when Aiden gently pushed on it with his finger. There was no movement in it. He turned around in his chair, causing some hairdressers to jump back again, but when they noticed how the beetle glittered, they were no longer afraid. This surely wasn’t just any ordinary insect, but what was it and how did it get in Aiden’s hair?
A gasp filled the room. Everyone looked at Evelyn, who stood with her hand in front of her mouth. “I know what it is!” she exclaimed, but before she said what it was, she rushed to the paper bin. Everyone stared at each other, wondering what was going on.
“It’s a jewel!” Evelyn shouted while showing everyone an old newspaper. She pointed to the image on the front page showing the exact beetle Aiden was holding in his hand. He grabbed the paper and read the article. It explained a rare jewel was stolen from the national museum last week: a beetle formed from rare rubies.
All sorts of questions popped up in his head. Aiden’s mind was racing, not fully realizing he was holding a precious jewel. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it again. “How does this end up in your hair?” one hairdresser eventually asked with a hint of suspicion. Aiden tried to answer but couldn’t. Where did it come from indeed?
Aiden relived the past few days in his head as he tried to remember where he had been. This was pretty simple as he wasn’t home for the past few days; his house was being painted, so he stayed elsewhere while the painters worked. “The motel,” he mumbled to himself. He spent the last few days in a motel on the other side of town. It wasn’t a fancy place as he didn’t want to spend much. Most of the time he was working in his room, and he only left a few times to run errands. How did the jewel land in his hair?
While Aiden recounted the last few days, he started to realize he was way out of his depth. There seemed to be a million possibilities for the jewel to have landed in his hair. It could even have happened moments before Aiden walked into the hair salon. He needed help, so without hesitation, Aiden called the police.
It was clear they took every lead on the jewel very seriously because not much later, the officers arrived at the hair salon. Aiden relaxed a little, thinking he could just tell his story and let the police handle the rest, unaware of how wrong he was. Even the agents, who were used to unique stories, couldn’t believe their ears. They listened closely to Aiden’s story and were puzzled at how the ruby got there. Then one of the officers said they were going directly to the motel as it seemed the most logical place to start. And then he shocked Aiden.
Aiden handed the jewel over to the officers and thanked them, thinking it was all over. But then the officer said something that made his heartbeat race. “You’re coming with us to the motel. You can probably help us.” Aiden stared at the police officer, trying to figure out if he was joking, but he soon realized the officer wasn’t.
Aiden couldn’t believe how his day had turned out. He went to the barber for a quick haircut, and now he was suddenly part of a major police investigation. It became immediately apparent how serious the police were taking this case as more and more police cars joined the caravan toward the motel. On his way toward the motel, Aiden ran the different possibilities through his head and agreed with the officer that the motel was the logical place to start. Aiden’s hand felt clammy as he watched behind him. That’s how ten police cars were following him. Then it struck him. What was his part in all this?
Aiden hoped that the police would find the rubies quickly and he could just watch from a distance, but something inside of him told him that wouldn’t be the case. “Why am I here?” he asked with a hazy voice. When the officer answered, his heartbeat went through the roof. “You’re the centerpiece.”
They were almost at the motel now, causing the police cars to stop at the side of the road. The police officers started to explain their plan. All these cars would undoubtedly alert the potential thief, so one man needed to go inside, and Aiden was that man.
“No way,” Aiden shouted at the officers. They couldn’t possibly mean this, right? How could they send someone in there to lure out a criminal without any kind of training or backup? But the officers stayed calm and explained they would attach listening equipment to him and post nearby, ready to take action if needed. Eventually, they managed to convince Aiden. Moments later, he walked toward the motel’s front door with a mic beneath his clothes and a camera on his cap. His heart was in his throat, and he felt like everyone could see he was nervous.
“Come on, you can do this,” he told himself. “I’m really doing this,” Aiden thought while walking through the door and approaching the front desk. He was greeted kindly by the man at the desk and given a key to his room. Aiden couldn’t help a slight smile forming when he pictured the receptionist as the potential thief. That would be impossible. The receptionist guided Aiden toward his room and kindly waved him off. Aiden could see that the man had a hard time walking and was clearly not the type of person who would launch such a daring heist.
He opened the door and walked into his room. But who could have been the thief, who was capable of such a thing and had access to his room? Maybe the jewels were in this room. He tossed the entire chamber but didn’t find anything. Aiden sat down on the edge of the bed, reviewing everything in his head, not aware he would soon find the answer.
“There seems nothing suspicious here, nor is there any lead,” Aiden said to the police via his microphone. The room seemed clear, and the receptionist couldn’t possibly be the culprit. At
this point, he was thinking out loud so the officers could hear him. “Who else had access to this room besides the receptionist and me? Am I missing anyone else?”
Aiden was still in the middle of his thought process and did not notice that someone was at his door at that very moment. He was sunken deep into thought, but a knock on the door woke him. “Hello, room service.”
“Of course, the cleaner,” Aiden whispered into the microphone. Nobody paid attention to these people; they had unlimited access to all the rooms. A perfect cover-up for a jewel thief, Aiden said softly. But that meant the thief could be outside his door and they were about to enter the room. Aiden looked anxiously at the door and did not answer the cleaner’s question. He heard a key enter the lock and saw the door handle move. Without making a sound, Aiden hurried to the bathroom and hid behind the door. He left the door ajar so he could watch what was about to happen.
His heart was thumping in his chest, and Aiden was afraid the person who was about to walk into the room would be able to hear it. He tried to manage his breath and carefully let out a sigh. Then he heard footsteps coming closer, and a woman appeared in view. Aiden estimated her to be about 30 years old. She had long wavy hair and a friendly expression on her face.
When the woman walked into the room, she glanced at the havoc Aiden left. He expected her to sigh deeply, but to his surprise, she didn’t seem to care, and she did something suspicious. She walked directly to the only place Aiden had not searched: the bed. At first, she acted like a typical cleaner as she folded the sheets neatly and covered the bed tightly, but at the pillow, her attitude changed. She began to turn the cushion on its side, and what happened next was unbelievable.
Instead of placing the pillow down and taking the other pillow, she went inside the pillowcase with her whole arm. She was clearly looking for something. Aiden’s heart beat even faster, and his hands started to feel clammy. Then he gasped softly as eight identical beetle rubies rolled across the bed. He almost gave away that he was in the bathroom, but he managed to contain his reaction by slapping his hand in front of his mouth. The cleaner was the thief. His mind was racing. He needed to contact the police before she got away, but he needed to do it quietly.
“Code red, code red, come quickly,” he whispered as softly as he could. It looked like she counted the rubies and realized one was missing. She started to shake the pillowcase frustratingly. She looked at her watch and suddenly stopped. The woman put the rubies in her pocket and went to the door. This sudden turn of events made Aiden’s heart skip a beat. He didn’t know if the police had heard his call for help, and the thief was about to leave. He needed to do something; otherwise, she would be able to get away. So on impulse, without thinking it through, Aiden stepped into the room.
But as soon as he stepped out from behind the bathroom door, he regretted it. “What am I doing?” he whispered. The woman was startled when she saw the man emerge from behind the door, and the two stared at each other for a while. Did Aiden make the right decision? If she had a weapon on her, this could be the end of him. But fortunately, that was not the case. She turned as fast as she could and ran for the door. Aiden tried to stop her, but the woman managed to dodge him and made her way to the door.
Aiden fell over and watched how the woman opened the door to the outside. He exclaimed, but then he saw it. Apparently, the officers heard his cry for help and made their way toward the hotel room. Were they going to make it, or was Aiden’s attempt to slow her down failing? He quickly got back up and heard a voice when he went into the hallway. “Now it’s time for our big cleanup,” it said, followed by a laugh.
Aiden looked around the corner and saw the woman being arrested. She had been caught red-handed and would be sent to jail. After the jewels were returned to the museum, Aiden got a reward he never expected. As it turned out, the museum promised a reward of $25,000 for the person who could give them the golden tip, and as Aiden was the one who brought them back, he got the prize. But that wasn’t all. He was also a hero for putting himself at risk and helping the police. Therefore, the museum gave him an additional $10,000 for his heroic performance.
Aiden was grateful and still had difficulty believing all of this had happened, but it did. He was the shining centerpiece in solving this crime case. When Aiden looked back at it, he couldn’t believe what he had been through. If he had chosen a different room or pillow, that beetle would never have gotten stuck in his hair. Then his day would have been perfectly normal, and the thief would have been free.
What a peculiar day! I’m eager to hear what you think about this story, so please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
