Chemical hoax
suspects soughtPolice hope to get treatment for
two men behind recent scares
Police are looking for the men responsible for two chemical scares in downtown Honolulu -- not to arrest them, but to see if they need any help.
"So they don't make the same mistake," said Maj. Michael Tucker, Honolulu Police Department commander for downtown. "There's no criminal case, there's no criminal violation."
Tucker wants to see if police can refer the persons for mental health treatment.
On Friday, four employees and two security guards of Bank of Hawaii's main branch at 111 S. King St. were decontaminated after a teller reported an itching sensation on her hands after receiving a loan application. The application was handed to her by a man who was wearing gloves and who left the bank after handing her the document.
Tests of the loan document revealed no toxic substances.
Police closed two lanes of Alakea Street and Honolulu District Court for about an hour Tuesday after a man spread a white powder on the sidewalk in front of the court building. The lanes and court building were opened after firefighters determined the substance was talcum powder.
Tucker believes the two incidents involved two different people. Police have not identified or contacted either of them.
Police and prosecutors had a much different response to some anthrax hoaxes two years ago following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said he intended to prosecute the perpetrators of the hoaxes under the fullest extent of the law.
One suspect was a Pearl City High School student who spread powdered sugar and baking powder around the school campus. The other suspect left a threatening note and a white powder in an envelope in the maintenance office of the Coral Creek Golf Course in Ewa. Neither was prosecuted.
In a separate case handled by federal prosecutors, a Kalihi woman was prosecuted and sentenced to seven years in prison for mailing threatening letters with the signature of her boyfriend's mother and a mixture of baby powder, rat poison and fish tank granules to the Kalihi Police Station and HPD headquarters.
