A Los Angeles barbershop is blasting the popular children’s song “Baby Shark” outside its storefront to deter homeless people from gathering outside.
Shalom Styles, CEO of Styles Barber Lounge, told local outlet KTLA he has security cameras installed outside his store that make a noise when someone moves nearby. Originally, the cameras just beeped, but Styles said that wasn’t enough.
Now, he has a speaker above his shop that blasts the song.
“When people are walking past and forth and loitering, the cameras beep, but the camera sound isn’t loud enough,” he said. “There’s cars going by at all hours of the day, also not loud enough. So the speaker playing ‘Baby Shark’ is gonna make everybody move, or bring the news and have the city do something about it.”
The speaker is pointed toward an encampment near his store, KTLA reports.
Styles also has locations in New York City and Las Vegas, according to the studio’s website. He founded the business in 2018.
Styles described a recent incident in which a nude woman began yelling outside his store when he asked her to leave.
“She started screaming at the top of her lungs, she kicked her shoes off, threw them and screamed for probably 10 minutes,” he told KTLA.
This isn’t the first time a business has used “Baby Shark” as a sonic deterrent. The Waterfront Lake Pavilion, a luxury venue in West Palm Beach, Florida, played “Baby Shark” and other children’s songs in 2019 to deter people from sleeping on their patio, CNN reports.
Other businesses across the country have similarly opted to use a device called a Mosquito, which emits a high-pitch noise. The noise can only be heard by people under 25, NPR reports, and has been used to ward off young people from gathering in certain areas.
Those who support sonic deterrents, like the Mosquito, say they’re necessary for preventing loitering and vandalism, but others say they’re discriminatory and can disturb nearby residents, according to NPR.
The Independent has contacted Styles Barber Lounge for comment.
