Fire rescue crews pulled two men and two women from a sailboat early this morning after it ran aground on the reef about a quarter-mile off Ala Wai Yacht Harbor.

The couple that lived at the harbor aboard the 65-foot ketch, The Mystic, called for help at 12:49 a.m., fire officials said.

They told officials they were playing host to a visiting couple from Canada and had left the harbor at 10 p.m. last night, bound for Moloka'i. The boat turned back when the owners realized the on-board radar system wasn't working, said Capt. Richard Soo, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman.

The boat's owner told Coast Guard officials that they had missed the channel entrance and ran aground near the surfing spot known as Kaiser's, said Petty Officer Justin Acosta.

The Coast Guard then called fire rescue crews, who used a 14-foot, shallow-draft Boston whaler to reach The Mystic, Soo said. Rescue crews then used a surfboard to bring the four people aboard back to the whaler, and then to the fire boat in the channel that took them to shore.

The boat remained this morning listing at a 45-degree angle on the reef.

Woman helps catch a thief

A woman working in a Waikiki gallery yesterday caught a man allegedly trying to steal employees' purses from a storage closet and then helped in the pursuit that ended in his arrest.

The woman worked at Diamond Head Gallery, 2301 Kalakaua Ave., police said.

The victim told police that at 3:30 p.m. she opened a closet where personal belongings were stored and found the 38-year-old suspect inside, holding a plastic bag. The woman saw that her purse was missing from the shelf and demanded that the man turn over the plastic bag, police said.

The suspect fled to the street, the victim chasing him. When she caught him and struggled to reclaim her purse, he allegedly punched her and fled.

Joined by bystanders, the woman continued the chase, police said. After he was caught a second time, police said, he managed to escape and later was caught in a storage room at an undisclosed nearby hotel.

Knife threats lead to arrest

A 23-year-old man was arrested yesterday morning in Mililani on suspicion of using three kitchen knives to repeatedly threaten another man.

Police were called at 2:35 a.m., after the suspect, who allegedly had been drinking and arguing with the victim at the Kipapa Drive home, had fled.

The victim, 25, told police the suspect made three separate threats with the knives before fleeing. Police later located the man and arrested him.

Brushfire burns 4 acres on Maui

Maui firefighters battled for an hour this morning to extinguish a brushfire that broke out just after midnight in Pa'ia.

The alarm sounded at 12:04 a.m. calling engines to an area just off Baldwin Avenue, officials said.