Police Lt. Jerry Inouye said officers were "taken by surprise" at the amount of personal property they found inside the abandoned warehouse, which is owned by Japanese billionaire Gensiro Kawamoto.

Inouye said police had fielded a number of reports in recent months from area residents who complained about seeing what appeared to be homeless people breaking into the warehouse and other buildings on the property bounded by Queen, South and Keawe streets.

"Our officers had gone by there a couple of times in the past, but the people who were squatting there would lock themselves in," Inouye said. "Without the owner's permission, our officers could not force entry into the buildings."

But after determining Kawamoto owned the buildings, he was contacted in Japan and his representatives in Hawai'i met with Kawamoto and police at the warehouse site at about 9 a.m. yesterday, Inouye said.

When police forced their way in, they found five or six people in one of the buildings "with many of the comforts of home," Inouye said.

"Mr. Kawamoto is kind of a soft-hearted guy and he really didn't want to press charges against any of them," Inouye said.

However, a 40-year-old man who was found hiding in a crawl space was arrested for trespassing. Two other men, ages 47 and 50, were arrested on outstanding warrants charging them with contempt of court.

It is possible those found inside the building could be charged with other crimes if police can establish the goods in the warehouse were stolen and can tie the theft or possession of the goods to those who found inside.

"It could be difficult — just because you find them there next to the property, that doesn't necessarily put them in possession of it," Inouye said.

Police recovered a sizable number of long-distance telephone calling cards with the cardboard backing still attached, suggesting the cards were stolen from a retailer, Inouye said.

Police believe that the warehouse had running water and electricity until about a month ago.

"I guess when you have that much money and that many properties, you might not be aware that one of them is abandoned and still has water and power," Inouye said.

He said police asked Kawamoto to have his workers secure the building and to make periodic checks to make sure no one tries to move back into the buildings.

"Our officers will make several checks a day over the next several weeks, too, to make sure no one tries to move back in," Inouye said.

John Pierre "Pete" Manaut, Kawamoto's lawyer, said Kawa moto had been aware of trespassing concerns but had no knowledge that anything illegal might being taking place at the site. He said Kawamoto wanted to give the people found living in the buildings a chance to move out and take their belongings with them.

Kawamoto bought most of the undeveloped block in 1989. Early last year he said he hoped to advance his plan for a 20-story tower with 230 large one-bedroom units either for sale or rent to a middle-income target market.