Theft victimizes
couple -- again

A home-invasion robbery is their
fourth encounter with armed
thieves

As former mom-and-pop store owners, Isamu "Sam" and Dorothy Teruya have faced armed robbers three times before. But Thursday's brush with violent crime hit too close to home for the Kapahulu couple.

Sam Teryua, 79, was bound, gagged and robbed at knifepoint in his Wela Street house about 3 p.m. The suspect fled with his wallet, cash and jewelry, including Dorothy's solitaire diamond wedding ring, which Sam gave her 49 years ago.

"I told my husband, 'You paid for your life,'" she said.

The loss of material things is a small price for her husband's safety, she said. "I'm thankful at least he wasn't hurt."

When the couple owned the McCully Superette, Sam was robbed at gunpoint twice. And Dorothy, 72, said that 10 years ago she jabbed a pen into the neck of a robber who held a knife to her throat, then grabbed his crotch as he kicked her husband.

On Thursday, Sam awoke from a nap when he heard noises. He encountered a young man in the hallway armed with his wife's butcher knife. The intruder had walked in through an unlocked door.

Teruya, whose neck is bent down from osteoporosis, at first thought the man was a friend. But the man took Teruya into his bedroom, where he fell backward and scraped his arm.

The man covered Teruya with a blanket, bound and gagged him with Dorothy's stockings, and demanded money and jewelry, poking him in the stomach with the knife.

He complied with the thief's demands. "I figured I'd just let him have the money or whatever there was," he said, adding that he feared the man would threaten his wife when she got home.

Teruya said the thought of being killed occurred to him, but he was overwhelmed by shock.

The intruder fled, and Dorothy arrived about 20 minutes later to find her husband's hands still tied, although he had managed to loosen the bindings enough to call police.

HPD Detective Chris Lee said last night that police have a lead on a suspect and are continuing their investigation. The suspect faces first-degree robbery and kidnapping charges.

Police said home-invasion robberies are unusual on Oahu.

"There hasn't been one for a while," said Lt. Raymond Quon, of the Honolulu Police Department's Robbery Detail. "I don't get them very often."

Home-invasion suspects are often caught by the next day, he added.

Still, Lt. Gilbert Kilantang of HPD's East Honolulu Burglary/Theft Detail said burglars appear to be more brazen, striking during the day while residents are at home or late at night when residents are sleeping.

In several cases "the culprit is in the residence burglarizing the home and is startled by the homeowner, but there's no confrontation," he said. In those cases the suspects fled.

The Teruya case was an exception, he added.

Quon also said that burglaries are not on the rise in the Teruyas' neighborhood. In Kapahulu, home burglaries averaged nearly eight a month from October 2003 to last month, with nine last month and five so far this month.

Police say locking doors, securing louvers with glue or clips and removing hedges deter break-ins.