Robbers hit
McDonald’s at
Liliha, McCully

One gunman forces employees
into cold storage but none was hurt

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Several regular customers were waiting outside, but Glenn Waki, who owns one of two McDonald's robbed early this morning, kept his McCully restaurant closed for several hours.

"Everyone is safe and that's the most important thing to me," Waki said.

The company will be reviewing its security procedures today, a McDonald's spokeswoman said this morning.

Four of Waki's workers were confronted by three masked robbers at 4:45 a.m. today, about 30 minutes before the restaurant was scheduled to open. The robbers confined three of the employees in a cold storage room, while a manager was forced to show the robbers the location of a safe.

Waki sent the workers home and opened his restaurant at about 9:30 a.m. The four were very shaken by the ordeal, he said.

The McCully robbery occurred about 15 minutes after police received a report that a McDonald's restaurant in Liliha was also robbed.

In that robbery, two janitors were confined to a storage room.

A silver-colored handgun and ski masks were involved in both robberies, but police investigators are not certain the cases are connected.

No one was injured in either case.

An undisclosed amount of cash from a safe was taken in the McCully robbery. It was not yet known whether anything was stolen in the Liliha robbery, but the safe was not opened, police said.

The janitors were working inside the Liliha restaurant at 414 N. School St. when one of them went to check on a suspicious sound near the back door, Detective Terry Bledsoe said.

The janitor was confronted by a masked man, who stuck a gun behind his shoulder.

The robber then forced the two employees into the storage room and threatened to shoot them if they tried to come out.

Four employees were in the McCully restaurant at 2121 S. King St. when the three masked robbers entered through a side door after one of the employees went out to dump trash, Detective Ron Moore said. Only one weapon was seen.

The robbers fled on foot and were seen scaling a nearby concrete wall.

Melanie Okazaki, marketing supervisor for McDonald's Restaurants in Hawaii, said the company will be reviewing its security and safety procedures.