2 men get Botox, then dash. L.A. day spa is out $4,000

Two men walked into a Botox clinic in downtown Los Angeles this week and said, “Doctor, do whatever you can to make us look beautiful.”

But the doctor — and police — are now doing whatever they can to find the men, who ran out without paying, authorities said.

Benny Hau said he treated the men at Sculpt DTLA, at 705 S. Olive St., on Monday, providing $4,000 worth of Botox fillers and lip injections.

Monday was a slow day at the clinic, and because it was a holiday, Hau said he had planned to close early. But then the two men — one white and the other African American — walked into his clinic around 3:30 p.m.

“They said they’d never received treatment before, and both said they wanted to look really, really nice,” Hau said. “They wanted to look ‘beautiful.’ ”

Neither patient asked about the price tag, but Hau says many of his clients come in without a concern for cost, so he didn’t think anything of it.

He took routine “before” pictures so the men could see their transformation after their treatments. The white man told the doctor he was concerned about the wrinkles on his face, even though he said he was only 38. The black man, who appeared to be younger, said he wanted his lips to be more plump.

Hau said the men seemed squeamish at first, noting, “They said they hadn’t gotten needles in their face before. But after the procedure about an hour later, both men were “effusively happy.”

“They said they would recommend us to friends, write good reviews,” Hau said.

It wasn’t until the older man asked to use the restroom — for a second time — that Hau became suspicious. The customer left the clinic to walk to a public restroom down the hall, and 10 minutes later, the younger man asked to go check on his friend.

Hau grew suspicious and told his receptionist to watch the pair. He thinks the men may have been scoping out their escape route during the first trip to the bathroom.

“I said, ‘Just follow them,’ ” the doctor said, “because it’s unusual for both patients to use the bathroom at one time, and we didn’t want them to run off.”

When the receptionist caught up with them, one of the men pushed her out of the way and darted out an emergency exit.

In his 11 years in Los Angeles, nothing like this has happened, Hau said. Patients have accidentally walked out without paying before, he said, but they always came back.

The clinic’s nurses posted surveillance video online showing the men’s visit in hopes they could be identified.

Police are now searching for the men, according to LAPD Det. Mike Mazzacano, who added that the department’s Property Crimes Division would be interviewing Hau further on Thursday.

“Yes, they took things away, but things are replaceable,” the doctor said. “I had patients in the other room while they were there. I’m just happy my patients were safe, my nurse was safe, my receptionist was safe and nobody got hurt.”

alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandra