Honolulu police have organized a task force to investigate a recent surge in thefts from freestanding automated teller machines.

Since April 3, thieves have broken into seven ATM machines and stolen cash from four of them, police said. The targeted ATMs belong either to a federal credit union or two private companies; none is operated by Hawai'i's major banks, police said.

Investigators believe two groups are responsible for the break-ins, which are often completed in less than 10 minutes. Thieves are using crowbars to pry open the machines and none of the targeted ATMs had overhead surveillance cameras.

Police Maj. Carlton Nishimura, commander of the Criminal Investigation Division, said a task force made up of personnel from two HPD district crime reduction units and the department's investigative bureau has been assigned to investigate the ATM thefts. The task force is part of the division's new Strategic Enforcement Detail, Nishimura said.

Kaua'i police say they, too, are trying to stem ATM thefts. Thieves on the Garden Isle have even uprooted three freestanding ATMs and stolen the entire machines, police said. All three have been recovered.

On O'ahu, the latest ATM break-in occurred Monday night in Mo'ili'ili, Nishimura said.

The Advertiser reported on April 3 that police were investigating a quick-hit series of four ATM break-ins in central O'ahu, including a robbery which involved the takeover by force of Aiea Cue at 98-064 Kamehameha Highway in Waimalu.

The string of ATM break-ins began April 1 at 'Aiea Shopping Plaza on Kauhale Road.

At about midnight April 2, thieves broke into another ATM near Big City Diner at Gentry Waipi'o Shopping Center.

At 2:15 a.m. April 3, three men with crowbars barged into the second-floor Aiea Cue pool hall, ordered four employees to lay face down, and used a "blow torch" to break into an ATM and change machine. The robbery was completed in 15 to 20 minutes and the suspects fled with $1,000 in coins and $175 cash taken from the cash register, an undisclosed amount from the ATM and change machine, a laptop computer, a PlayStation video game player and games, and an iPod.

Ju Young Woo, 33, was charged April 9 with first-degree robbery in connection with the Aiea Cue holdup. He is being held at the O'ahu Community Correction Center in lieu of $750,000 bail. The other suspects, who wore masks, are still at large.

The April 3 spree continued as thieves broke into a second-floor ATM at Pearl City Business Plaza, 803 Kamehameha Highway, at about 4:15 a.m. The entry door to the second floor and ATM were pried open. About $20,000 was reportedly stolen in the Pearl City case but far lesser amounts in the other break-ins.

Except for the Aiea Cue case, the other ATM break-ins were being investigated as thefts within the police districts they occurred until the formation of the task force.