Worker nabbed after
driving off in city truck

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

With guns drawn, police stopped a city facility maintenance truck in Kahaluu yesterday and took into custody a city employee who allegedly drove off with the truck after "acting weird," police said.

The truck was in the Kaneohe-bound lane of Kamehameha Highway when a half-dozen uniformed and plainclothes police officers in marked and unmarked cars descended upon it about 10 a.m. near Waihee Road.

Police arrested the worker without incident.

Traffic along Kamehameha Highway was halted in both directions during the arrest.

The morning began with co-workers of the man reporting that he was "acting weird" at a job site in the Hauula-Kaaawa area, Kaneohe police Sgt. Masen Kuaiwa said.

A supervisor told the man to go home, police said.

"He hopped in the truck and took off," Kuaiwa said, apparently taking the truck without permission.

Kuaiwa said that police responded to a report of an auto theft. After they caught up with the truck, officers drew their weapons as part of a standard response, he said.

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the employee was at Castle Medical Center yesterday under observation.