Hale'iwa sign is stolen again
By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer
Tourists just love them — but so do thieves.
Advertiser library photo
For the fourth time in seven years, thieves have made off with one of the colorful Hale'iwa North Shore signs designed to identify the community and lure folks into town for "Food, Gas, Shops & Beaches."
Police are asking anyone who has seen the missing Hale'iwa North Shore sign to call them. Only one of the three signs is left.
Hale'iwa merchants paid $15,000 for the signs, the absence of which affects business.
"It is hurting the town," said Antya Miller, administrator of the North Shore Community Chamber of Commerce. "The tourists just love them. They stop all the time in front of the one that was just stolen. You'll see them standing beside the sign having their pictures taken."
George Atkins, owner of the Hale'iwa Art Gallery, first noticed the sign missing on Friday. He reported it to Miller, who had heard it all before.
This particular sign — near the Weed Circle end of Joseph P. Leong Highway, known as the Hale'iwa Bypass — holds the distinction of having been swiped twice.
The first time was on July 29, 1996, along with an identical sign near the opposite end of the bypass, near the Hale'iwa Beach Park end of town. Both signs were posted again later after they were found abandoned outside of town.
Then, on March 18, 2001, the third identical sign, which had been posted midway along the bypass, was stolen. That sign has never been recovered.
With this most recent theft, only one of the three blue, white and yellow icons featuring a surfer is still standing.
"Oh, I don't want to hear this," said the woman who made the signs, former North Shore resident Carole Beller of South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
"That just really is upsetting," she said upon hearing the news. "The town got together to pay for those signs."
Beller, who spent months creating the wood, metal and polyurethane markers, said the signs were welded to three heavy-duty metal posts, which would make them difficult to steal. But police say it appears the sign was knocked over by a large vehicle.
Atkins thinks a large truck either deliberately pushed the sign down or pulled it over with a rope "because two of the poles broke off at the ground, and one of them broke off a couple of feet up," he said.
"I think this is a new way to collect signs for your surf pad," he said. "Those things are the icon of the North Shore. They are a real target because they are so beautiful. It's unfortunate to have to go through this again."
Beller and others wondered what use anyone would have for such a large, conspicuous sign. It is 5 feet by 8 feet and weighs 200 pounds.
"Where can they possibly hide it?" she said.
Police urge anyone who sees such a sign in a place where it shouldn't be to call 911.
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
