POLICE BEAT
Stakeout nabs copper-theft suspect
By Dave Dondoneau
Advertiser Staff Writer
Police early yesterday arrested a 43-year-old man suspected of being the leader of a major copper theft ring responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in thefts in the Makakilo area.
The arrest was made at about 5:30 a.m. along a westbound stretch of H-1 Freeway, at the Makakilo off-ramp. Members of a task force, in place for about two years, had spent the weekend staking out an electrical box that had been left open with a soft-drink bottle covering a live wire that had already been cut.
"The Coke bottle over the wire was a new one," said Glenn Hamamura, a foreman with the state Department of Transportation's highway lighting division. "My partner, Ronald Maekawa, and I do checks on the electrical boxes from Kunia to Industrial Park because thieves sometimes leave them open or leave a wire exposed so they know which ones to come back and hit later. When we saw the bottle, we knew they'd be coming back soon."
He added: "The task force with the police and sheriff's department couldn't have worked better. We finally got him."
Hamamura said he contacted the sheriff's department last week, and enforcement officers sat across the highway Saturday night, watching a man as he allegedly parked a car nearby, surveyed the area and took wire from the site.
Copper theft is a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison for each offense.
Hamamura estimates that copper stolen from electrical boxes in the Kapolei and Makakilo area is worth about $750,000 for the wire alone. Replacing the wire would cost about $2 million, Hamamura said.
"I've lost count of how many police reports I've had to make because of copper thefts in this area," Hamamura said.
"These guys make it dangerous for motorists. They've stolen so much wire that they've forgotten some places they've hit. What they'll do is mark the ones they need to come back to by either leaving the box open or sticking a wire out that's been cut. It's like little tags for them. The Coke bottle was the first time I saw that, so we knew they'd be back soon."
Reach Dave Dondoneau at ddondoneau@honoluluadvertiser.com.
