Posted on: Thursday, May 24, 2001

Honouliuli Shokai hit by burglars yesterday

By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau

A burglary early yesterday at the family-run Honouliuli Shokai store may have been the last straw for the failing, 81-year-old business.

Third-generation store manager Wally Murata had planned to sell what remained on the shelves and close at the end of the month. But after burglars destroyed the store's safe and took $500 in cash sometime after midnight yesterday, he said he no longer feels safe having money at the remote location on Old Fort Weaver Road.

The store could close as soon as today, he said.

Ironically, when Murata took over the store from his three aunties who retired on New Year's Eve 1995, the store was burglarized that night, so his first day in charge he had to deal with the aftermath of the crime.

"I don't believe in signs, but if there ever was one, this is it," Murata said.

This time, Murata said, burglars disabled the alarm system, pushed out a window used as a shave ice counter, then crawled into the store. They unscrewed a light bulb to cloak themselves in darkness and then broke into the safe originally owned by Murata's grandfather, Katsuhei Murata, who opened the general store in 1920.

The burglars used a crowbar or similar tool to pry open the double doors on the 6-foot-tall safe.

Murata said he was fortunate to have made a deposit at the bank that day, or the thieves would have gotten away with more than $500.

The store had been burglarized and robbed several times over the years. In 1966, Murata's aunt, Betty Murakami, was robbed at knifepoint; two sailors were convicted of the crime and sent to prison. In 1977, two men on parole were caught burglarizing the store.

Once, the store was robbed twice in two days by the same man, Murata said.

"One time, a robber came in and my mother yelled 'FIRE! FIRE!' and all the people came running out from the back and scared off the robbers," Murakami said.

Anyone with information on the latest crime is asked to call Lt. Janet Crotteau at the Kapolei police station at 692-4410.