A rise in the number of garage burglaries in the Ocean Pointe housing development of 'Ewa Beach has spurred a group of residents to rally their neighbors into action.

There have been 118 burglary reports in the past year, at least 83 of those since January, in Police Beat 875, which consists of all of Ocean Pointe, a small section of 'Ewa By Gentry, and the cluster of homes in the area around Papipi Road leading to One'ula Beach Park, also known as Hau Bush, according to Honolulu Police Department officer Tony Pacheco.

"There's been a spike," said Pacheco, a member of HPD's District 8 Community Policing Team.

Concerned Ocean Pointe residents are asked to attend a 5:30 p.m. meeting at the park on Kai Moana Street today to discuss establishing a neighborhood watch program and other means of combating the problem.

Joel Rehmer, who lives on Kaileonui Street, said burglars broke into his detached garage during the early evening June 4 and took an air compressor, welder, pressure washer, toolbox and tools valued at $17,000.

Rehmer, a 38-year-old operations manager for a Campbell Industrial Park company, said he had also left his wallet in the glove compartment of his truck. The burglars worked fast, he said, because he left the garage around 7:30 and someone tried to use his credit card in Honolulu at 8:45.

When police told him there had been a number of garage break-ins in the neighborhood, he started chatting up neighbors. When he heard other horror stories, he began putting out fliers warning people about the burglaries. So far, he said, he's handed out nearly 800 fliers by himself while other neighbors have made their own copies and distributed them around Ocean Pointe.

"Until people know what the hell's going on around here, we're never going to stop this," Rehmer said.

Rehmer said a police officer told one of his neighbors as many as 32 burglaries may have taken place in June alone.

Tony Becker, a one-time president to two different Ocean Pointe subdivisions, agreed. "We have to get involved as a community or this otherwise isn't going to stop," he said.

Sharene Saito Tam, assistant vice president of Ocean Pointe developer Haseko, said a community association pays for security patrols of the development. Haseko has asked the association to consider beefing up those patrols, but doing so may require homeowners to pay higher monthly association fees, Tam said.

While Rehmer said burglars have apparently discovered a maneuver that allows them to open a garage door from the outside, Tam said police have told her that as much as 80 percent of the burglaries have come from side doors or garage doors that were left ajar.

Ocean Pointe homes feature detached garages behind their dwellings accessible through side streets. Rehmer said that may be one reason the garages are attractive to burglars. But Tam said that point has not been established.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.