28. The Wig-Jacking Crime Wave
Wigs are so cheap today, that you can get a reasonably realistic-looking one at Walmart for $9.99. There was a time, however, when wigs were necessities for the upper crust – and quite expensive necessities at that. In the eighteenth century, for example, making a decent wig usually could take “six men working six days from sunup to sundown“.
As a result, a good wig could cost as much as an average workman earned in a year. Such a small fortune propped atop rich people’s heads made wigs an attractive target for highwaymen, strong-arm robbers, or simple snatch-and-run street urchins. The result was a crime wave of wig robberies.