Maui warning

[Tecpartner]

Man, you guys are making me pucker up.  Last Monday I had a rental board on a jeep sitting around Lahaina for the better part of a day.  I was watching it, but not every second.  Sounds like those knuckleheads would rip off a tourist without thinking twice. 

Of course the board was marked as belonging to Royal Hawiian Surf Academy, so that may have made them think twice.  If that board ahd gotten stolemn I would have had to replace it; an expensive weeks rental!

[PonoBill]

It's not a widespread problem, more like getting hit with a meteor, but there's been a few more meteors lately. Used to be that Lahina was the danger spot for losing a board, now it seems it's Kanaha. Only takes one or two people doing this to make what looks like a crime wave.

As far as logic goes, these folks are not the sharpest knife in the drawer. The generally strip the cars a bit or clean out the glovebox and leave them. Or in some cases they burn them. That's the M.O. of the inbred geniuses I was speaking of earlier. No reason, they just like to. Sooner or later the cops will bag them and things will quiet down again.

[jordanzs]

I wonder how much it would cost, during the manufacturing process, to embed a GPS tracking chip, so you can locate your board via internet?  Given technological advancements, I could see this kind of stuff becoming mainstream on anything that is stealable.  Cameras, Pets, Wallets, etc.  Obviously they already have the lojack for the laptops, but I think that pretty soon the technology will allow for free usage, like mapping on cell phones.

[808sup]

I like the chip idea. My dogs have them in their ears. However they are not GPS. They have to be scanned manually.

[beaglebuddy]

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/mau/spo/2238529697.html

[jordanzs]

At the very least, the Maui Police should embed a gps tracking chip in a SUP, and leave it on the the racks of a civilian car.  Let the thieves nab it, and then track them down & arrest them.  Do that a couple of times & then word will get out that SUPs are not the items that they should be stealing.

[1paddle2paddle]

I would imagine the outbreak is invariably drug related.  I got a board lifted from my carport area (Oahu) in a "secured" community.  The perps apparently had a large white van so they could put it inside and drive out of the place without a yellow 10'6" Naish strapped to the top.  I talked with a guy who's board was stolen the next block over and there was footage of a white Chevy van pulling in, people going in and coming back with a board and leaving.

The security cameras in our community weren't working that day so there was no clear footage of who took it.  The incident did spark the association to fix the cameras.

I called HPD and made a report but the detective told me insufficient evidence to make any arrests.

The board was fairly distinctive in that I had made some repairs to it and could easily identify it.  I have never seen that board since (3 years ago).

[ChefBoyRD]

This is an ongoing problem in the Kanaha area , I have had buddies get there kite equipment, basically anything that is not bolted down taken.

They are driving a white nissan pathfinder or something similar, One of the peeps is a  scraggly looking haole ( I'm haole as well no offense meant )

They are very blatant and they seem to be working in a team.

Lets all stick together and get these buggas. My buds usually have ads on CL looking for them or some of there loot.

[Deb]

Just heard of another vehicle stolen at Kanaha. Rumor has it that the thieves have a stolen master key for older Toyotas. If your key has a TR47 or TR37 number on it - watch out. At least one person was holding their key when their vehicle was stolen. So if there is a master key, even with a steering wheel lock, they can swipe all the contents.   

[jordanzs]

I have one of these & use it all the time:



Definitely prevents the car from being stolen, but I wonder if theives will peek in my window, see that on the brake, and think "this guy knows the drill" and move on to the next car?  I'm sure my car has been looked in many times, especially parked at Lanis, VLand, Off The Wall, etc.

[PonoBill]

I was just up at Haiku Hardware and they had ten propane tanks stolen last night. The perp was video'ed but they couldn't see the plate clearly. Tall, scraggly haole guy with a white van. Scraggly Haole fits the general description. If it's the same dude he's a one (or maybe two) person crime wave.

[starman]

I suspect when they find this dude they will also find a large pile of his busy work. Easy to steal much harder to sell it off especially on a small island.

My son's roommates at our local University had their wetsuits ripped off over the summer. A couple of months later the campus police busted a kid with over a 100 wetsuits in his apartment.

 I suspect the stink of fermenting used wetsuits gave him away. Some neighbor must have thought he was cooking meth.

So take picture, right down serial numbers, have something to ID your stuff so that if its ever found you may get it back.