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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 24, 2009

MOTORCYCLES AT WAIPAHU AUTO BODY SHOP VALUED AT MORE THAN $200,000
Police uncover chop shop

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Several guns and replica guns also were seized in a police bust of a Waipahu motorcycle chop shop. Four men were arrested.

REBECCA BREYER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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KAPOLEI — An online ad led police to a Waipahu auto body shop, where officers arrested four men and seized 32 motorcycles Thursday in what officials called the biggest motorcycle chop shop bust in memory.

One official estimated the value of the motorcycles at more than $200,000. Police also seized several guns and replica guns.

Four men in their 20s were arrested for various offenses, including felonies, said Honolulu Police Department Capt. Sean Naito, who is with the Criminal Investigation Division.

Standing before a lineup of 32 motorcycles yesterday at the Kapolei police substation, Naito said the investigation was a team effort among HPD's auto theft detail, the Pearl City police crime reduction unit and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The vehicle identification numbers on the motorcycles, which were mostly large-engine sports bikes, had been defaced and altered, Naito said. Police so far have confirmed that 18 of the motorcycles were stolen.

"This investigation began as a result of a complainant who observed what he believed was his stolen motorcycle being advertised on the Internet," Naito said.

Naito said police will contact the owners of the motorcycles as they are identified. He said it was not known yesterday how long the chop shop had been in operation, or from where the bikes were stolen.

Retired police detective Leroy Fujishige of Mililani, who was with HPD's auto theft unit for nearly a decade in the 1980s and '90s, showed up at the police press conference after hearing about the bust. He said nothing in his experience compared to the number of bikes confiscated in Waipahu.

"This is a major operation," said Fujishige, who recalled confiscating up to three or four bikes during chop shop busts when he was an investigator.

NICB special agent John Dela Vega said each of the confiscated bikes would be worth up to $8,000, giving the combined total a value of well over $200,000.

He said police would try to make that determination as well as how many other motorcycles might have been stolen.

None of the officials at yesterday's press conference could recall a previous HPD motorcycle chop shop bust of the Waipahu scope.

"As a general rule for what we call a chop shop operation, you're going to really need a search warrant to go in," said police investigator Lt. James Strickland. "And it's difficult to get the necessary information for a judge to sign a search warrant.

"So, the investigation worked out well for us. And, you can see the results."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.