Video camera Bernice Tran and her mother, Jennifer, said they reacted without thinking during an armed robbery Sunday of their jewelry store at Pearl Kai Shopping Center.
captures chaos of
armed robbery
Police are amazed that no one
was hurt after the store owner
defied the armed pairSURVEILLANCE VIDEO ONLINE
By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.comInstead of lying down on the ground like the two robbers told them to do, Bernice started throwing things while her mother reached for the alarm.
"I threw a calculator at the first guy," said 14-year-old Bernice. "Then the second guy was trying to run away, so I threw a mirror at him, but I missed."
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"I was angry, too," said Jennifer Tran, owner of JT Jewelry & Watch Store. "I hit the guy with the umbrella."
She failed to mention that the robber she hit was pointing a gun at her.
"I work so hard, and they come in and take the jewelry in front of me. Make me so angry."
To top it off, the Trans and a male relative chased the two robbers out the door. The entire robbery was caught on video by a surveillance camera, leaving Honolulu police with what they said were the best-quality images of a robbery they have ever seen.
"You can even hear what the suspects were saying," said Detective Ted Coons. "The quality is unreal. I even told them (the Trans) that their equipment was so good that they shouldn't have put themselves in danger like that."
While the video does show moments of comic bumbling -- like when one of the suspects tries to stuff merchandise into a backpack he has not opened -- the situation chilled some detectives, who said this sort of action by the merchants could have prompted the robbers to shoot someone.
"The store owners could have been killed. There could have been some carnage here," said CrimeStoppers Detective Letha DeCaires. "You can see on the video that the one with the gun is very nervous when he racks his weapon. This could have turned into a botched robbery/homicide very quickly."
The video shows both suspects wandering around the store, killing time while waiting for the last customer to leave. After that, the suspects walk over to the display case and ask to see some merchandise.
Soon it appears the suspects do not like what they see and are about to leave. Then one of them says, "You know what, just give me everything," and pulls out what police described as a semiautomatic handgun from his waist.
After that, all hell breaks loose.
"What you doing? What you doing?" says someone behind the display case while the suspect with the gun attempts to push Jennifer Tran to the floor. Tran refuses to listen and all the while reaches for the alarm button.
"Get away from that!" yells the robber with the gun. "Down! Down! No! Down!"
"Eh, the guy coming back," says the other robber, who peers over his shoulder while grabbing something that looks like a gold bracelet. He runs out and almost gets pelted with a calculator. The robber with the gun follows and narrowly misses getting smashed in the head with a mirror thrown by Bernice.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" the Trans yell while they chase the robbers armed with a stick and a misshapen umbrella. All told, the Trans estimate that the robbers got away with about $5,000 in jewelry. After the anger and fear subsided, Tran said she realized later that what she and her family did was dangerous.
"I know, but sometimes you get mad and cannot think at all," said Tran. "It's just a reaction."
"These people have every right to fight back and protect themselves and their business," said DeCaires, "but I think it's important for all businesses to decide ahead of time how you're going to handle it instead of reacting. You can replace stuff but you can't replace life."
The suspect with the gun is described as a male in his 30s, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 140 pounds, slim, with a tan complexion and black short hair. He has a spider web tattoo on his left elbow.
The suspect with the backpack is described as slim, in his 30s, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds.
Anyone with information about the suspects or their whereabouts is asked to call Detective James Anderson at 529-3436. Callers can also contact CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or by dialing *CRIME on a cellular phone.
