A 21-year-old Hilo man faces numerous charges in connection with the theft Saturday of a county Hele-On bus.
A 21-year-old Hilo man faces numerous charges in connection with the theft Saturday of a county Hele-On bus.
Police charged Kawelo Nakamura at 2:15 p.m. Monday with first-degree theft, leaving the scene of an accident, first-degree criminal property damage, unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle and driving without a commercial driver’s license.
Nakamura’s bail was set at $13,000 and his initial appearance is scheduled for Tuesday in Hilo District Court.
Lt. Miles Chong of the Hilo Criminal Investigations Section said the estimated value of the bus is “in excess of $300,000.”
“We haven’t gotten the damage estimates from the county yet; they’re still working on that,” Chong said.
Police said the bus, which was stolen early Saturday morning from the county’s Mass Transit Agency baseyard, was involved a hit-and-run collision on Railroad Avenue in Hilo.
Kianee Lane said Saturday the bus clipped her driver side-view mirror as he passed her. Lane, who had her children in the car with her, said she swerved off the pavement into the grass to avoid worse damage to her vehicle.
Police spotted the bus at about 3:43 p.m. on Route 130 in Puna and was able to stop it near the intersection at Kaohuwalu Street in Pahoa and arrest Nakamura, whom officers said was driving.
The bus is the second vehicle known to be stolen this year from the county’s Mass Transit Agency baseyard and damaged.
On April 22, a Ford F-350 utility box truck with a lift gate was taken from the baseyard on East Lanikaula Street and driven recklessly through Hilo during Merrie Monarch weekend, with involvement in at least two hit-and-run collisions and a pair of police pursuits, police said.
Witnesses said a passenger, later identified by police as 19-year-old Eric Wilson of Pahoa, shot a gun from the window of the truck on April 24 in Hawaiian Paradise Park.
The truck was found torched later that day in a remote section of Fern Forest subdivision. It was a total loss.
A 25-year-old Hilo man, Jeremy Kalehua Rafael, was later arrested and charged with the the theft of the truck.
Former Mass Transit Agency Administrator Tiffany Kai said the purchase price of the year-old truck, with taxes and fees, was $73,000. She said the truck was part of the county’s self-insurance program, which means its loss will be absorbed by property taxpayers.
In addition, a privately owned ambulance was stolen July 21 from the entrance to Hilo Medical Center. It was found less than an hour later with minimal damage near the Hilo landfill on Leilani Street.
A 24-year-old Hilo man, Maksim Stasyuk, was charged with first-degree theft and two counts of criminal property damage in that incident.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald