HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Man with gun robs bank teller
Advertiser Staff
Police last night were searching for a man who used a gun to rob the Ala Moana Center branch of American Savings Bank yesterday afternoon.
The man walked up to a teller about 5:20 p.m. and demanded money, said Detective Gary Lahens. When the teller handed him some cash, the robber pulled a gun out of a large envelope and asked for all the money that the teller had, Lahens said.
The teller complied and the man fled. The man was described as being about 6 feet tall with a slender build.
NORTH SHORE
ARSONIST TORCHES VACANT BUILDING
Fire destroyed a vacant building yesterday on the makai side of Kamehameha Highway across from the Crawford Convalescent Home on the North Shore.
Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said two engine companies and a tanker responded to a brush-fire call about 5:30 a.m.
No injuries were reported.
Fire investigators said the blaze was deliberately set. The case has been turned over to police, Tejada said.
KAUA'I
LOANS TO HELP PAY FOR SOLAR SYSTEMS
LIHU'E — The Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative is working with the Kaua'i Community Federal Credit Union and Kaua'i County Housing Agency to offer interest-free loans for qualifying customers who install solar water heating systems.
Call the utility at (808) 246-8284.
WAIKIKI
SEXUAL ASSAULT SUSPECT IDENTIFIED
A 29-year-old Waikiki man accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old Mo'ili'ili girl met her via an Internet chat room on Saturday and persuaded her to meet him outside her home early Sunday morning to have sex with him, according to a police detective's statement filed in District Court.
Matthew Cargill was arrested on Sunday and charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault, five counts of third-degree sexual assault and a single count of electronic enticement of a child.
According to the detective's court statement, Cargill posed as a 16-year-old boy on www.myspace.com and began communicating with the girl on Saturday on that Web site. The girl gave Cargill her phone number.
Cargill called the girl, and the two agreed to meet outside the girl's home, the court statement said. In computer messages and subsequent telephone conversation, the girl told Cargill she was 15 years old.
Cargill drove to the girl's home, the statement said. At about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, the girl left her family's apartment, got into Cargill's car and had sex with him. The girl's mother discovered what was going on and called police.
O'AHU
WILSON TUNNEL LANES CLOSING
The Wilson Tunnel on the Likelike Highway will be closed in the town-bound direction from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and tomorrow for rockfall mitigation inspections, the Department of Transportation said.
STATEWIDE
SANCTUARY SEEKS WHALE COUNTERS
The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is looking for volunteers for the 2006 Ocean Count to help record observations on humpbacks from the shore.
Data collected enables the sanctuary to study whale population, distribution and behavioral trends at different shore sites over the course of the whale season. The Sanctuary Ocean Count will be on O'ahu, Kaua'i and the Big Island on March 25 at selected sites from 8 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
To register, call (888) 55-WHALE, ext. 253, for the Big Island; 397-2651, ext. 253, for O'ahu; or (808) 246-2860 for Kaua'i.
