Posted on: Tuesday, September 14, 2004

POLICE BEAT
Maui man killed in traffic accident

Advertiser Staff

KA'ANAPALI, Maui — A man died yesterday morning after a pickup truck hit a utility pole on Honoapi'ilani Highway and then crashed into his sedan.

Police said Sefita Tupou died at the crash scene at the intersection of Kai Ala Drive in Ka'anapali. The driver of the pickup was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku, where he remained in guarded condition with cuts to the head.

According to traffic investigators, the driver of the pickup lost control while headed in the Ka'anapali direction, deflected off a utility pole and struck Tupou's car, a 2000 Dodge four-door sedan. The sedan was shoved into a concrete wall and overturned.

The traffic death was the 13th of the year in Maui County, compared with 10 a year ago.

Couple halts car-theft attempt

An 'Aiea woman and her boyfriend thwarted a car theft at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, police said. The woman, 24, told police that she heard her car's alarm go off while it was in the carport and saw a man trying to back it out.

The woman's boyfriend confronted the man, who got out of the car and ran. The boyfriend chased the man until the suspected car thief got into a car with another man and a woman and drove off.

The boyfriend jumped in his own car and followed the car containing the three people until it stopped a short while later, at which point he confronted the others. The man suspected of trying to steal the car got out and ran away while the two other people in the car tried to speed away just about the time police were arriving.

Arrested for suspicion of first-degree burglary were an 18-year-old Waipahu man and a 28-year-old man and 19-year-old woman, both of 'Aiea.

Man, 19, accused of burglary

A 19-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of first-degree burglary after a Honolulu man returned from shopping Sunday to find his home had been broken into.

The man told police he returned home at about 10 a.m. to find louvers from one of the windows missing and his bedroom door ajar. The homeowner said he saw the burglar leave his home and that he followed the man down the road until arriving police officers arrested him. Police said they searched the man and found items that had been stolen from the home.