Theft of irreplaceable photos adds to Maui family's heartache
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Jonathon Olson has spent the past two weeks shuttling between his Maui home and Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu to be with his critically ill granddaughter.
During his stays in Honolulu, Olson carried along a blue Reebok gym bag, where he kept airline coupons, medication, keys and other items. He kept a sharp eye on the bag because it also contained dozens of photographs of his 22-year-old nephew, who died last year.
But one night last week, Olson left the bag in a rental car when he visited a friend at the Executive Centre hotel downtown. During the two hours that he and his girlfriend, Leilani Correa, were with their friend, someone broke into the trunk of his white Pontiac Grand Am and stole the bag.
Olson said he can replace most of the items, including 17 Aloha Airlines flight coupons, but he said the 80 photographs of Shane Dapitan are irreplaceable. Olson had collected the pictures for a tribute to Dapitan on the one-year anniversary of his death this Labor Day.
Olson is pleading with the thieves or anyone who may have the bag or pictures to return them, no questions asked. The photographs are of Dapitan when he was just a month old to about 20 years old, Olson said.
"Somebody's going to see these pictures and they're not going to realize the story behind them," he said.
He said he thought about returning to his car and getting the bag, but he left it behind because Correa had just spent 14 hours at the hospital with her granddaughter, Daisy, and was exhausted.
"We finally take a break from the hospital after two weeks staying up at the hospital, and that's only the second time in my life that I let a bag out of my sight. But we were so tired at that time," Olson said.
He said the past two weeks have drained the family emotionally. Daisy was brought to O'ahu after coming down with flu-like symptoms. Doctors were unable to pinpoint the cause of her ailment and scheduled surgery. But just before she entered the operating room, Daisy went into cardiac arrest.
Daisy remains in critical condition at Kapi'olani, and Olson said she is showing some improvement. But the family is having a difficult time coping with her illness, and the theft of the pictures has hurt them even more.
"Nothing in the bag will be of much benefit to (the thieves). That's the sad part," Olson said.
Anyone with information on the bag or photographs is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8025.
