CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Ethel Plymale inspected the damage to her 2001 Honda Odyssey, which was one of more than a dozen vehicles vandalized yesterday on Meheu Street around 1:30 a.m. Three of the Plymales' four cars were damaged in the spree.

Vandals strike vehicles

Windows on more than a dozen
cars are smashed by three boys
wielding bats

Several bat-wielding teenagers vandalized more than a dozen cars in a quiet Mililani Mauka neighborhood early yesterday morning, according to police.

Some residents of Meheu Street said they were awakened about 1:30 a.m. by the sound of smashing auto glass and car alarms. When they looked outside they saw several teenage boys with bats and smashing in car, truck and van windows as they went by, then eventually jumping into two vehicles and fleeing the area.

"I heard a big loud noise and looked through my bedroom window and saw someone smashing my son's car," said Ethel Plymale, whose son's Honda Accord was parked across the street from their home. "My son said he heard kids counting down ... one, two, three, then multiple boom, boom, boom."

Besides the Accord, the suspects hit two of the Plymales' other vehicles, a Toyota Corolla and a Honda Odyssey minivan. Down the street, three windows were broken on Justin Ramirez's Jeep Cherokee.

"Me and my girlfriend were just going to bed when we heard pounding and alarms going off," Ramirez said. "I ran out just in time to see them running down the street, and I ran inside the house to call police.

"I should have took off running after them instead."

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Most of the vehicles damaged early yesterday morning were parked along the street, although some were parked in their driveways. Police are searching for three teenage suspects.

Most of the damaged vehicles were parked along the street, though some of them were parked in their driveways, like Derrick Visitacion's Toyota Tacoma. Visitacion said he heard his car alarm but then went back to sleep because he did not see his truck's broken window from his doorway.

"I've had false alarms before, so I turned it off because I thought I was waking my neighbors up," he said. "Then I got a phone call five minutes later, and my neighbors told me to come outside. ... Everybody else was outside, too."

Neighbors said nothing appeared to have been stolen from their vandalized cars, which means either the suspects did not have time to take anything or were likely only interested in causing mayhem.

"I left my doors all unlocked," said Chad Cataluna of his Ford F150 pickup truck, which had a smashed rear window on the truck cab. "I had everything inside, stereo system, speakers, my construction tools ... all worth about $2,000. They didn't take anything. ... (I'm) kinda surprised."

Neighbors at the end of the cul-de-sac said they heard the suspects driving in earlier, before the vandalism started, but did not think anything of it.

"I noticed it because one of the cars sounded strange, like it had a muffler problem," said Jeanne Malket.

Neighbors said they saw the suspects running makai down the street toward Lehiwa Drive, then get into at least two vehicles, one a compact car and the other some sort of sport utility vehicle.

However, police released details about one of the cars, describing it as a silver or white vehicle. The suspects were described as three teenagers, one of them wearing a beanie, one of them a white T-shirt with cutoff sleeves, and the other with a backpack.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call HPD investigator Eli Walters at 621-0785, ext. 243. Calls can also be made to CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or by dialing *CRIME on a cellular phone.

"We moved out of the city to feel safe," said Plymale's husband, Philip. "We used to live in Kalihi where you'd expect something like this every night. Now I'm suspicious of anyone who drives up our street."