CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM On a police Web site, Donna Fujie spotted four rings stolen from her last year and recovered them yesterday.

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Return of
the rings

Honolulu police reunite
a Hawaii Kai woman with
jewelry that burglars
fenced at a pawnshop

Donna Fujie thought she would never recover any of the jewelry stolen from her Hawaii Kai home in a burglary almost a year ago.

But yesterday, Fujie, 44, stood outside the Honolulu Police Department modeling five rings on her fingers that she estimates have a collective value of about $3,500.

"I never thought I would see them back," said Fujie. "I'm so excited."

A week ago, Fujie spotted a newspaper story alerting burglary victims to check the Honolulu police Web site (www.honolulupd.org) to check photos of stolen items, many of which had been recovered from a Kalihi pawnshop.

She said she had long given up hope of recovering the $7,500 worth of jewelry stolen Feb. 26 from her home in Queen's Gate, a gated community. She said she had visited several pawnshops after the burglary looking unsuccessfully for any of her jewelry.

With low expectations, she checked the police Web site.

"I instantly found them. I'm so glad I checked. There's pages of stuff, but I found these right away."

Police Detective Letha DeCaires said Fujie "was the perfect burglary victim" from a police perspective. "She kept excellent paper records and photo records of her jewelry, which quickly helped us identify her rings so we could give them back."

DeCaires said the Fujie case shows that people should "not lose hope" and should check the Web site. She said anyone who identifies missing items on the police Web site should call the detective handling their case to make an appointment to view the items.

"We also encourage people to take photos of their treasures," said DeCaires.

Detective Clement Enoka III said he joined a task force last fall to investigate a series of robberies in Hawaii Kai, which included Fujie's home.

"We started in East Honolulu but the investigation ended up islandwide," said Enoka, who handled Fujie's case.

He said evidence pointed to A-1 Pawn Shop in Kalihi as the buyer or fence for the stolen items from Hawaii Kai and elsewhere. About 500 items were recovered from the shop.

Clement was part of task force made up of detectives from each patrol division and the Criminal Investigation Division that investigated a series of burglaries in which the suspects pretended to be soliciting yardwork.

To date, the task force has arrested 25 suspects, including the man believed to have robbed Fujie.