KAILUA — Up to two dozen business burglaries reported here since May might have been committed by a man apprehended after his DNA matched samples recovered from crime scenes, police said.

Gregory Micah Kaahanui, 25, was arrested yesterday in connection with eight burglaries from May through the end of September, police said. His arrest was on suspicion of eight counts of second-degree burglary.

In each burglary, the suspect allegedly swiped loose change, bills and other small items but never made off with more than $200, police said. Several of the businesses sustained damage to windows and doors, police said.

With the arrest, "We're also looking to clear anywhere between 12 to 24 other burglaries," said Honolulu Police Capt. Greg Lefcourt. "This is the result of an excellent investigation conducted by our detectives and DNA technology."

The recent rash of burglaries was the second reported in Kailua in the past year, and came several months after 85 Mililani homes were burglarized at the end of last year. Arrests have been made in both Kailua cases. No one has been arrested in the Mililani crime spree, which police attributed to a single group of people.

For years, Honolulu's property crime rate including burglary has been significantly higher than comparable Mainland jurisdictions.

In 2003, for example, the city's property crime rate was higher than San Francisco, San Diego and Las Vegas, all cities that are used by the Honolulu Police Department as benchmarks for policing practices and staffing issues.

Property crimes in general did fall in 2005, the most recent year for which FBI statistics are available, a trend law enforcement officials credited to an increased effort to arrest and prosecute repeat property criminals. The number of burglaries in Honolulu dropped last year to 6,208 from 7,240 in 2004.

In the recent Kailua burglaries, police linked the recent crimes by the manner in which the businesses were broken in to and DNA evidence left at the scene.

At six of the businesses that were burglarized, police found blood, saliva or cigarette butts that yielded DNA samples that matched that of the suspect. A surveillance video from one of the businesses also showed the suspect drinking a beverage and leaving it at the scene, Lefcourt said.

The man left blood at two Kailua business after he cut his hand breaking glass windows and doors, police said.

Kaahanui has not been charged and is being held at HPD's Alapa'i Street headquarters. Second-degree burglary is a class "C" felony punishable by up to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Representatives of several of the burglarized businesses declined comment yesterday.

Kaahanui was the second man to be arrested in connection with a rash of business burglaries in Kailua in the past 12 months.

Kailua police arrested a 21-year-old man in July for his part in a series of burglaries that started in December 2005 and lasted through January. The man is awaiting trial on two counts of second-degree burglary, police said.

In that case, more than 10 Kailua businesses were burglarized, two of them twice, Honolulu police said.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.