Posted on: Saturday, November 27, 2004

Thieves are out to steal your holidays

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The start of the holiday season has swept up the Islands in the annual frenzy of gift-buying and other pressures — and swept away normal levels of vigilance that can protect people from crime.

As a result, police have plunged into another holiday tradition: Warning the public about thieves who are eager to prey on valuables that often go unwatched at this time of year.

A whole lot of money and merchandise are changing hands out there. Most of the action comes in the form of legitimate holiday shopping, police said, but some thievery goes on, too.

People are carrying their cash and credit cards as well as their newly bought booty for gift-giving, which makes them and the places the riches are stored — cars and homes — prime targets for criminals, said Capt. Ed Nishi, in charge of property crime at the Honolulu Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division.

A lot of this activity happens at the malls, Nishi said, but the fact that juveniles are out of school can mean a spike in burglaries at homes, too.

"When the kids are out of school, they do things," he said. "Also, there's a direct relationship between drugs and property crime, no doubt."

Brittany Graham, three years into her pursuit of a doctorate in oceanography, became one of the season's earliest victims this week when someone broke into her house and stole her laptop. The loss of all her research — an analysis of tuna sashimi to "unravel the complexities of tuna migration" — is her primary concern, Graham said in a written appeal.

She has issued a no-questions-asked offer of a reward (e-mail: grahamb@hawaii.edu) for at least a chance to copy her data from the Dell Inspiron 4150, identifiable by scrapes on its right side.

Some crime-fighters say that perhaps Graham's bigger concern ought to be any personal data on that machine, which thieves can use in identity theft. This kind of crime, executed through computer theft and Internet scams as well as credit-card theft, has become a high priority for federal law enforcement, Nishi said, because identity theft has been linked to terrorists.

But the bottom-line risks ought to be enough to concern consumers, he added: Lost credit-card or checking account information can be costly.

"It's more lucrative to do fraud against the bank than walk in and rob the bank," he said.

Police also warned yesterday that with the holiday season comes an increase in online fraud. Shoppers should deal online only with companies they know, officials said, and should be wary of fraud in which consumers are urged to submit private information in phony e-mails that imitate legitimate communications.

As for face-to-face commerce, Nishi encouraged shoppers to maintain enough presence of mind to minimize risk.

"Shoplifting goes up, transactions with counterfeit credit cards ... it all goes up," he said. "The sheer amount of total transactions go up. There are some people who take advantage of the large volume being processed, and they like to mingle in with the crowd and pickpocketing increases. So the stores will be hit, as well as the people shopping in the stores.

"When people go shopping, they're all pumped up, and thinking of other things," Nishi added. "You need to think about making sure your car is locked, think about making sure your belongings are locked ... out of plain sight."

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.