HILO -- Music store owner Dan Hoff said an agreement he made last week to sell tickets to a Hilo concert featuring the London-based group Spice Girls seemed like a standard business arrangement. Spice Girls concert
merely a scamBut he discovered this week that the calm, self-assured man in blue jeans who said he represented the concert promoters wasn't telling the truth. Police said tickets to the concert were sold as part of a scam pulled off by a parole violator from Honolulu.
The concert was a hoax, and Akram Abdullah-Wasi, 28, also known as John L. Lewis and John Iwase Akram, was arrested last night, police said.
Police said Abdullah-Wasi told them the number of tickets printed, but they are still trying to confirm the number. That number is needed to determine the amount of money involved and the degree of the charge that will be filed, they said.
Police are warning residents to lock their doors after three men armed with handguns burst into a Kaimuki home on Mikahala Way at about 3 p.m. Sunday, tied up and gagged two residents and spent about 25 minutes ransacking their house. 3 armed men rob
couple in KaimukiThe men left with jewelry, cash, a VCR, credit cards, a pager and 12 cans of soda from the refrigerator, police said.
The victims, a 62-year-old man and his wife, 51, were not injured.
"It's a house that's very ordinary and they were ordinary citizens," Detective Gary Adkins said. "The man was sitting in his living room having a late lunch and his wife was lying on the floor watching television."
The three suspects, carrying handguns, entered the home through an unlocked door. Two of them had additional guns tucked at their waists.
Such "home invasion" robberies have increased in recent weeks, said police Lt. Clifford Takesono of the Robbery Detail.
The state Land Use Commission thought a new public hearing on Molokai Ranch's plans for luxury vacation camps would resolve allegations that the Sunshine Law was broken during earlier proceedings. Land Use panel secrecy
charged by Molokai RanchInstead, the hearings, scheduled to resume tomorrow, have again raised charges of secret decision-making.
Kenneth R. Kupchak, an attorney representing the ranch, said the hearing was announced although the commission ruled against the camps and officially closed its proceedings May 7 and has not had another public meeting to reconsider that action.
"It's one of the strangest things I've ever seen," Kupchak said. "We're sitting here in the dark trying to get our hands on what has happened."
The commission's executive officer exceeded her legal authority by scheduling new hearings without a vote by the commission, and by failing to meet a tight one-day deadline for reconsidering any action, according to a position statement filed on behalf of the ranch.
Not so, says Deputy Attorney General Jon Itomura. Under state law, a board or commission could be required to redo any official action if a court determined that it had violated the Sunshine Law, Itomura said.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Frederick Helm, land vertebrates specialist for the
Department of Agriculture, holds a python,
which is illegal in Hawaii.Federal agents are searching for a Nanakuli man suspected of keeping several illegal animals at his home. Feds hope to bag
animal case suspectAgents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Customs Service found a tarantula, piranha and two adult scorpions with 24 babies at a Nanakuli home Saturday night.
State agriculture inspectors said they believe the man and his former girlfriend have other illegal animals elsewhere on the island.
The man's neighbors caught a rock python, previously thought to have been a boa constrictor, at their home after the animal devoured three chickens Friday. The same neighbors caught a boa constrictor, possibly belonging to the man, in the area last October.
According to a U.S. District Court affidavit for a search warrant, federal agents were told that the man and his former girlfriend bought three snakes in April from a Las Vegas pet store. The affidavit also states that the pair allegedly carried snakes and tarantulas into the state in 1995.
Frederick Helm, land vertebrates specialist for the state Department of Agriculture, said he had suspected snakes were in the area.
He said he is glad the federal government is involved in the case because "they have a bigger stick."
Federal penalties for bringing snakes into Hawaii are up to five years in prison and a $100,000 fine, compared with state penalties of one year in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Two other snakes, a 3-foot python and a 5-foot boa constrictor, were turned in yesterday by a man seeking amnesty.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffA 4-year-old girl died yesterday afternoon from injuries after being thrown from her family's vehicle Saturday night. Four-year-old dies
of traffic injuriesThe girl's 2-year-old brother died shortly after the accident near the Helemano Military Reservation at 10:13 p.m.
Police said the girl was ejected from the family's Jeep Cherokee when the Cherokee was struck from behind while stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Kamehameha Highway and Paalaa Uka Pupukea Road.
The family was headed home to Waialua on Kamehameha Highway when they were hit by a Chevrolet Lumina van driven by a 33-year-old Army man.
Speed and alcohol are possible factors, police said.
Police said the driver of the van faces two counts of negligent homicide.
The girl's older brother, 10, is in stable condition at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.
Other Police/Fire headlines
in today’s Star-Bulletin:
- Pearl City police are looking for a woman who escaped from police car
- Police arrested a suspect after bank robbery
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
See our [Info] section for subscription information.
