DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Gloria Wakatsuki, left, and her husband, Kats, waited outside the gate to Pier 2 while law enforcement officials investigated possible explosives in a pallet of boxes that were scheduled to be loaded aboard the Crystal Harmony. They did not have to wait long. The load was cleared before noon, and the Wakatsukis got aboard for a trip to Japan.

Lady Luck’s scent
prompts shutdown
of Honolulu Harbor

Bomb-sniffing dogs single out
boxes but find only casino gear

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By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Honolulu Harbor was shut down for three hours yesterday after bomb-sniffing dogs alerted their handlers to suspicious boxes that turned out to be gambling equipment waiting to be loaded onto a cruise ship at Pier 2.

The U.S. Coast Guard ordered the harbor closed about 8:20 a.m. Operations were allowed to resume at 11:30 a.m. after Honolulu Police Department bomb technicians determined that the boxes did not contain any explosives.

Because of the day's light schedule, only three major arrivals and no major departures were affected, said Alan Murakami, state harbor operations supervisor. One Matson container ship and two Young Brothers vessels had to wait outside the harbor until operations resumed, Murakami said.

The Coast Guard was alerted at 7 a.m., said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Willis, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman.

Handlers from security contractor Certified Detection notified authorities that two of their dogs singled out the same pallet of boxes.

The boxes were on the pier waiting to be loaded onto the cruise ship Crystal Harmony, which arrived from Lahaina about 1 a.m.

"We suspended all operations as soon as we all pretty much agreed that this could potentially be some type of device. So at that point we allowed 350 passengers to continue on. They had planes and that type of thing to catch. They were departing the vessel. We let them go. Everything else was suspended," Willis said.

The gambling equipment was flown in to Hawaii from a casino in Las Vegas to be installed in the Crystal Harmony, Willis said.