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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 2:27 a.m., Monday, July 29, 2002

Police Beat

Advertiser Staff

Bank robbed in Chinatown

Police today were looking for a man in his 40s who held up the Chinatown branch of First Hawaiian Bank.

A surveillance camera at First Hawaiian Bank in Chinatown recorded this image of a man being sought on suspicion of bank robbery.

Crimestoppers photo • Honolulu Police Department

At about 9:45 a.m. a man allegedly entered the bank, located at 2 N. King St., and handed a teller a note demanding money. The note indicated that the robber had a weapon, police said, although no weapon was seen.

The robber fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

He is described as being about 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pound. He has wavy black hair, a moustache, a medium build and a dark complexion. He reportedly was wearing a dark blue T-shirt with the words “Las Vegas,” shorts, a light blue baseball cap and sunglasses.

Anyone with information can call Detective Eric Yiu at 529-3436. Anonymous tips can be filed with CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, *CRIME on a cellular phone.

One hospitalized in Waikiki blaze

Fire gutted a one-bedroom unit on the top floor of a three-story Waikiki apartment building this morning, sending one of the two residents to the hospital with first-degree burns.

Firefighters responded to a 2:07 a.m. alarm at the Tradewinds apartment complex, with the blaze breaking out in apartment F-305 at 330 Hobron Lane.

The fire was extinguished at 2:28 a.m., said Capt. Richard Soo, fire department spokesman. Damage has been estimated at $120,000 to the structure and $20,000 to the apartment's contents.

A 53-year-old woman was taken to The Queen's Medical Center with first-degree burns on her arm.

Man arrested after break-ins

Police arrested a 36-year-old man yesterday on suspicion of burglary and an auto break-in when a Waikiki tourist, after discovering his hotel room key had been stolen from his rental car, caught the suspect in his hotel room.

The tourist, 35, told police he had parked his locked rental car at the Diamond Head lookout but discovered when he returned about 10:15 a.m. that someone had broken into it.

Among the property taken was a key to his hotel room, police said. Upon his return to the Aston Waikiki Sunset, 229 Paoakalani St., he allegedly found the suspect in the room. The tourist got injured in the scuffle that followed.

Fire that spread near homes halted

Firefighters on Maui worked for nine hours to contain a brush fire that burned about 255 acres in Olowalu and came within a few hundred yards of homes at Olowalu Village.

The first alarm sounded at 10:34 a.m. and before the day ended, a total of 40 people, including county firefighters as well as state forestry crews, had joined the battle.

Police hunting purse-snatcher

Police were looking for a man in his mid-30s who escaped on a bicycle last night in Waikiki after snatching a purse from a female tourist from Japan.

The tourist and her companion chased the robber, who took the purse about 10 p.m. at the bus stop fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Waikiki police said.

Woman pulled from ocean dies

The 37-year-old female tourist who was pulled from the water off Makaha Beach last Wednesday died yesterday at St. Francis Medical Center-West.

The city Office of the Medical Examiner identified her as Kathleen M. Kinney of Edmond, Okla.

Kinney was found floating after 10 a.m. about 300-400 yards offshore. She was brought to shore, where rescuers worked to revive her.