CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — The dumped merchandise that caused a stir outside a Clayton County beauty store on Wednesday was taken to a landfill and destroyed, police reported.
The Beauty Mart store, on Upper Riverdale Road, was evicted and its merchandise was removed in the store and scattered in a pile in the parking lot. According to court documents, the owner of the property had the renter evicted over $15,000 of back rent owed.
From wigs to eyelashes, jewelry and beauty supplies, hundreds of people were crowded around, wondering why they couldn't take anything that was evicted from the store as Clayton County Sheriff's Office deputies formed a perimeter around the items.
An exact reason for the items couldn't be distributed, or simply taken home, was never provided.
The fate of the items, however, was later cleared up by the Lovejoy Police Department. In a Facebook post, the department wrote:
"News broke today of a Clayton County Beauty Supply store facing eviction. Inventory from the store was placed in the parking lot causing a frenzy. The Clayton County Sheriffs Department collected the items to be dumped at the landfill. It is important to know that all items are currently being destroyed and unable to be collected. The Lovejoy Police Department will be monitoring the area," the post said.
At the scene of the store eviction on Wednesday, a few people among the masses explained what they were doing there, and the consensus was pretty clear:
"We like free stuff, so we came out here to get all this free stuff, but then the cops saying you can't get the free stuff because the people want to take it," said one woman at the Beauty Mart. "How y'all gonna take some stuff that ain't even yours? It's free!"
"So I got my two baskets and took the bus or whatever to get down here and get some free stuff," said a man in the parking lot.
11Alive's SkyTracker flew over the scene, showing a number of people lined up around the pile of merchandise and near the store's entrance. While police were present, about half a dozen dump trucks and several trailers showed up to help haul off the merchandise.