Posted on: Thursday, March 10, 2005

'Rash' of store break-ins has subsided downtown

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

When Jenny Yen opened her restaurant for the day recently, she found the back door broken open and realized the place had been burglarized.

"They just broke the lock and came in the back door," said Yen, co-owner of Grilla's at 12 S. King St. "They take the money. They searched and take all the change and money from the office and the register. And some soda."

Yen spent $800 that was not covered by her insurance policy to put in a new stronger door with better locks — and that night, someone tried to break in again.

"Then he came back, tried to break the door again and couldn't," she said. "He went upstairs and broke into an office and took a computer."

Yen's was one of 19 businesses burglarized in January in the area designated as police beat No. 154, which stretches between River and Bishop streets and Hotel Street and Nimitz Highway in Chinatown.

"There was a rash in January, quite frankly," said the commander of District 1, Maj. Kevin Lima.

Typically there are about 50 burglaries a month for his entire district, Lima said, so as many as 19 on a single beat is a jump.

The burglaries were mostly committed by someone using a metal bar to pry open a door, he said.

Plainclothes officers were assigned to look into the burglaries and some suspects were found, but so far no arrests have been made.

In the seven police beats in the Chinatown area, burglaries increased from 14 in November to 26 in December and 38 in January.

Burglary statistics returned to a more usual level in February, Lima said.

"I am still not satisfied with that because we didn't catch anybody," he said. "The person or persons responsible may have been arrested (for something else) or changed locations so they are still out there. We can't overlook it and say the numbers went back to normal so forget it. We are still tasked with doing that. Officers are still looking into possible suspects."

Reach James Gonser at 535-2431 or jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.