LIHU'E, Kaua'i — In the past year, Kaua'i has seen an increasing number of business burglaries where a safe or cash box was the target.

Among the 18 places hit in 2008 were a juice bar, a bicycle rental shop, a hamburger stand, a jewelry store and a rural post office.

In a Jan. 13 break-in at Kaua'i Community College Bookstore, thieves took $10,000 cash and the 500-pound safe where it was kept, plus some candy and beef jerky.

On Tuesday morning, employees of the Kaua'i Food Bank found their office ransacked and $240 gone from the nonprofit agency's safe.

"They were looking for quick cash," Kaua'i Food Bank warehouse manager Michelle Panoke said. "Obviously, they didn't want food."

Kaua'i Community College bookstore manager Jolynne Uyesono attributes the burglaries to "the economy and drugs."

"I think it's going to get worse on the island," Uyesono said.

Two weeks after the bookstore was burglarized, a bigger safe and a burglar alarm are being installed.

Police have some leads after the safe was dumped in a Kealia pasture, but no one has been arrested in the case, Assistant Kaua'i Police Chief Roy Asher said.

Complete burglary statistics for 2008 weren't available from police yesterday. But the property crime rate is up enough that Chief Darryl Perry issued a statement last week, outlining tips for protecting a business.

The 18 business burglaries in which a money container was taken took place in every area of the island, Asher said.

A recent daylight "snatch and grab" of cash from a register at the Salvation Army's Lihu'e thrift store used a different method. But like the mostly nighttime burglaries, there are still no arrests.

The authors of a letter to the editor published in The Garden Island newspaper this week said $3,000 was taken from their "mom-and-pop North Shore business" by thieves who cut the floor to remove the bolted-down safe.

The Kaua'i Food Bank holds periodic fundraisers in which cash donations are accepted, but they always go straight to the bank, not to the food warehouse, Panoke said.

Despite that, the Kaua'i Food Bank has been burglarized four times in 10 years. This time, when prying open the door didn't work, the thieves unbolted some metal siding on the building and entered through a crawl space.

Melissa Costales and her husband were shocked last summer when their Coconut Coasters Beach Bike Rentals in Kapa'a was burglarized. The thieves didn't get any money there, but apparently scored some cash at the nearby Coconut Cup juice bar and T'N'T Steak Burgers, which were hit the same night, she said.

The incident inspired Costales to join the Kapa'a Business Association and help it organize Kaua'i's first BusinessWatch. The program, with stickers for participating businesses and support from the police department, is soliciting participants now, she said.

For more information about BusinessWatch or NeighborhoodWatch programs on Kaua'i, contact police Lt. Dan Miyamoto at dmiyamoto@kauai.gov or 241-1649.