Posted on: Friday, January 24, 2003
City prosecutor enraged by car break-in
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle is a recent victim of Hawai'i's biggest crime problem.
"It's out of control," Carlisle said of thefts from autos, which accounted for 33.6 percent of the state's 44,925 larceny-thefts in 2001.
Carlisle was told by police that his was the fourth car broken into Saturday night in the same Kaka'ako parking lot. Besides damaging the lock on the driver's side of his Oldsmobile sedan, Carlisle said, thieves took small change, tennis rackets that are no longer in production and cannot be replaced, a lumbar roll for his lower-back disc problem and the remote control to open his garage door.
"If he sells my property, buys drugs and dies of an overdose, my feeling is good riddance," Carlisle said of the thief.
Although his out-of-pocket expenses will run several hundred dollars, Carlisle called his case "small potatoes" compared to such instances as when thieves take tools that people need to earn a living.
Carlisle said his daughter was using his car and had parked it in a lighted lot to grab a bite to eat. The break-in left her traumatized, he noted.
"She was very afraid for the safety of our home because the garage-door opener had been stolen," Carlisle said. ... I was surprised about how angry I was at what happened.
"I think the rage I felt about the trauma my daughter suffered is a natural parental response. I found myself also sick and tired of criminal defense attorneys who chant the mantra of 'this is a mere property offense' on behalf of their criminal clients and those judges who lack the will and backbone to treat such offenses as significant. Their actions diminish our quality of life in Hawai'i and help perpetuate the current epidemic of car break-ins and thefts."
Paul Perrone, chief of research and statistics for the state attorney general's office, said thefts from autos represent the highest number "by a wide margin" of the larcency-thefts that occur in Hawai'i.
