Shooting and Bomb Hit Same Barbershop Owner in One Night

Three bullet holes in one shop's front window. A homemade firework bomb blowing out the glass of another, about an hour later and across town. Same reported owner. Same night. That's the latest chapter in a barbershop turf war that's now been running for nearly a year in the Netherlands, and it just jumped from vandalism to gunfire and explosives in the same four-hour window.

What Happened

In the early hours of Friday, October 16, someone opened fire on The Best Barbershop on Liesveld in Vlaardingen. Police say it happened just after 1 a.m., and the overnight shooting happened at 1:00 a.m., the Rotterdam police said, with three bullet holes found in the windows and several shell casings discovered on the street. Witnesses told local outlet Twee that the shooter fled in a car, and investigators recovered a coat abandoned near a trash can a short distance away for forensic testing.

About an hour later, and across the river, a second branch of the same barbershop chain got hit. Another branch of The Best Barbershop, located on Hillevliet in Rotterdam-Zuid, was targeted when an explosive went off at around 2:05 a.m., shattering the window, with police finding remnants of fireworks and a piece of plastic from a bottle indicating a firework bomb. The blast also cracked the windshield of a parked car nearby.

Miraculously, no one was hurt in either incident. But the damage was enough that Vlaardingen's mayor shut the Liesveld shop down, and Rotterdam officials sealed off both the barbershop and the apartment above the Hillevliet location while police dig for a connection between the two attacks.

What makes this case more complicated than a simple drive-by: according to Dutch crime outlet Crimesite, both targeted locations reportedly share the same owner, and neighborhood rumor holds that this same owner may be connected to earlier explosions at *rival* shops, though police have not confirmed that link. In other words, the same business some people whisper is behind the bombings may now be the one getting shot at.

Why It Matters

This isn't an isolated flare-up. This war has been raging for many months, involving multiple barbershops and countless incidents, the BAZ Hair Salon on Liesvelt, for example, was targeted by vandalism in December 2025, an explosion in May 2026, and another explosion in August. Just five days before the shooting, a separate Vlaardingen barbershop on Westhavenkade was hit by an explosion on a Sunday evening at 11 p.m., an incident serious enough that a pregnant woman living above the shop was checked by ambulance personnel as a precaution and had to sleep elsewhere that night. Police later recovered an unexploded 'Cobra 20' firework from the scene, meaning the damage could have been far worse.

The city's mayor, Frederik Zevenbergen, isn't hiding his frustration. 'I am absolutely fed up with it,' he told Rijnmond. 'Time and again, society is shaken by an attack, by violence. This has to stop.' He's since acknowledged what residents already suspected: this isn't a string of coincidences. According to local outlet Twee, the mayor now concedes he's looking at what he calls a consistent, repeating pattern of incidents rather than unrelated events.

The Alleged Motive: A Price War Gone Violent

Nobody has been arrested, and police have not confirmed a motive. But the leading theory tracks back to money. The motive behind these attacks remains unclear, though there is speculation that they may be linked to unfair competition, earlier this year the newspaper AD reported that the targeted barbershops were undercutting their competitors by charging lower prices than the standard market rate.

That's the detail that should stop every shop owner in their tracks. This didn't start as gang violence with no connection to the trade, if the pricing theory holds, this is a business dispute between barbershops that escalated past vandalism, past arson, into gunfire. A disagreement over haircut prices turning into live ammunition is about as extreme a 'race to the bottom' as the industry has ever seen.

Industry Impact

Vlaardingen's city government is now moving to regulate an industry it previously left wide open. The municipality is working on a permit requirement for barbershops that want to open in the city, since currently barbers in Vlaardingen don't need a permit at all. That's a significant shift, a Dutch city effectively saying unregulated, low-barrier barbershop openings have become a public safety liability.

The city has also leaned on tools usually reserved for organized crime hot spots. Officials say camera surveillance, preventive searches, and a designated safety risk area are already in place, and extra police capacity has been freed up for the investigation, though no additional measures are planned for now. For barbershop owners anywhere, that's a preview of what regulatory overreaction can look like once an industry gets a reputation problem: permits, cameras, stop-and-search zones, and scrutiny that has nothing to do with licensing or skill and everything to do with controlling violence.

There's also a quieter financial toll barbers should clock. A two-week forced closure ordered by the mayor means real revenue lost while rent keeps running, a reminder that even shops with zero involvement in a dispute can get caught in the blast radius, literally and financially, when violence hits their address.

Lessons for Barbers and Shop Owners

1. Underpricing wars can escalate further than you think. Competing on price alone, especially in a saturated local market, creates resentment that doesn't always stay civil. If you're in a market with aggressive undercutting, document everything and loop in local business associations early, before a dispute festers into something ugly.

2. Know your local permit and licensing landscape. Cities move fast to add regulation once violence or disorder is linked to an industry. Shops that are already operating with proper licensing, insurance, and documentation will have an easier time surviving a regulatory crackdown than those caught flat-footed.

3. Security footage and lighting matter more than ever. Multiple incidents in this case were solved partly through physical evidence like shell casings and an abandoned coat, basic exterior cameras and good street-facing lighting can be the difference between a shop owner getting answers and getting nothing.

4. If you sense a rivalry turning hostile, involve police before damage happens. The mayor has specifically asked residents to come forward with information about perpetrators and possible instigators behind the attacks, a pattern of threats or vandalism is worth reporting immediately, not absorbing quietly as 'part of doing business.'

5. A shared storefront or brand across multiple locations means shared risk. Both barbershops hit this week operate under the same brand name. When trouble follows a business name rather than a single address, every location under that banner becomes a potential target, plan security accordingly.

Related Reading

Follow ongoing coverage of the Vlaardingen 'kappersoorlog' through Dutch regional broadcaster Rijnmond and national outlet NOS, both of which have tracked the case since vandalism first began in December 2025.

*No injuries were reported in either the October 16 shooting or explosion. Police in both Vlaardingen and Rotterdam have not announced any arrests as of this writing, and the motive remains officially unconfirmed.*