Like a scene from a “;Magnum, P.I.”; rerun, a police helicopter dogged a pair of stolen Yamaha WaveRunners off the Waianae Coast yesterday until the alleged thieves surrendered.

Officers Track Waverunner Thieves From Sky and Ocean

 

Police arrested two men who were suspected of stealing a pair of jet skis and then riding them out into the water off Barber's Point.

 

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  Also in hot pursuit were the watercraft's owners, Chris and Cindy Wamberg, who received help from radio station KSSK in tracking them down.

Police arrested the two men, ages 21 and 27, on suspicion of unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle.

When they realized that the vehicles were missing - along with their trailer - from their Makakilo driveway early yesterday morning, the Wambergs called police and KSSK, then sprang into action.

On a tip from the radio station, they headed out to Waianae, where a listener had spotted the vehicles at Tracks Beach at about 9:30 a.m.

At Tracks a surfer said he had seen the Waverunners, one red, the other blue, heading toward Ko Olina.

So the Wambergs headed to the nearest boat launch ramp at Kalaeloa.

“;We saw them on them,”; Cindy Wamberg said. “;They were riding them.”;

Police were already at the scene when the Wambergs arrived.

“;The (police) helicopter was trying to follow them, hovering over them,”; Wamberg said. “;They (suspects) couldn't get in because of the reef.”;

The suspects eventually brought the watercraft into a beach area, but the WaveRunners, which weigh about 800 pounds each, were full of water, making them closer to 1,000 pounds and not easy to lift out of the water.

Fortunately, the area was just behind Ameron Hawaii's Campbell Industrial Park office, and Ameron had its heavy equipment operator hoist the watercraft out of the water and onto the trailer, which had been recovered at Hau Bush in Ewa Beach, Wamberg said.

The couple expressed amazement at the bold theft.

The Wambergs went to bed late and heard a noise sometime between 1 and 3 a.m. but thought it was a neighbor.

Leaving for work later in the morning, Cindy Wamberg discovered the thieves had cut off the locks and moved some bricks and a free-standing portable basketball hoop and backboard. They hitched up the trailer to a truck and drove off with the two used WaveRunners, which the couple had bought for $10,000.

The Wambergs say it will not happen again. “;We're getting new locks,”; Wamberg said.