Former Miss Hawaii robbed at gunpoint
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu police are investigating a home invasion robbery at the home of a former Miss Hawaii.
Kumu hula Iwalani Walsh Tseu said four men with guns jumped over her backyard wall Sunday night and took possibly near $1 million worth of jewelry, some of which has been passed down in her family for generations.
“It was not a good way to start a new year,” she said.
Walsh Tseu was at home preparing to go out to see family and friends when she heard a shriek from her youngest daughter, Miss Hawaii USA 2009, Aureana Tseu.
“I am running out of the bathroom in my robe to a gun pointed at my face,” Walsh Tseu said.
A masked man had her daughter face down on the ground with her hands tied and a pillow over her head. A second man had a gun aimed at Walsh Tseu, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported .
Walsh Tseu said the gunman pushed her down, tied her up using a phone charger cord, then ransacked the house and found drawers filled with jewelry, including Hawaiian bracelets, black pearls, emeralds and more. She said she thinks the men may have spent around 30 minutes in the house, all while Aureana Tseu’s husband was out in the driveway unaware of what was going on inside. Then she heard a whistle, and the men fled out the back door and over the wall to what she suspects was a waiting car.
Walsh Tseu said she is grateful that no one was hurt, including Aureana Tseu’s cousin who was in a cottage on the property and also detained by the gunmen.
Police are investigating the incident. It was one of four armed robberies on New Year’s Eve in Honolulu reported to police.
The family is offering a $10,000 reward for information that results in prosecution.
Guam raises smoking age from 18 to 21
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — Guam has raised its smoking age from 18 to 21.
Starting Monday, it is illegal for individuals under 21 to smoke cigarettes or vape or access tobacco products, the Pacific Daily News reported.
The new rule was unanimously passed by the Legislature and became law without the governor’s signature.
Those who are caught smoking illegally will be required to go through a mandatory education program that includes smoking cessation, according to the law.
Smoking rates in the island have declined in the past few years but remain higher than the national average, according to the American Cancer Society.
Health care professionals who supported the law cited a report by the Institute of Medicine which predicts tobacco use in the country would drop by 12 percent if the legal smoking age was raised to 21.
The law also had the support of young adults who signed petitions and spoke in favor of it, said Speaker Benjamin Cruz.
“This bill became law because of young people, not in spite of them,” he said.
Johnny Lujan, 17, believes the law will lead to more people smoking illegally.
If he can be charged for a crime as an adult when he turns 18, he doesn’t see why he should not be allowed to smoke.
“It just seems really dumb,” Lujan said.
Cristopher Naputi, 20, who has been smoking since he was 18, agrees.
“I don’t like it,” he said. “Everyone has an opinion about it, but (smoking’s) not hurting anybody.”
Naputi does not plan to smoke illegally. Instead, he said he will use the months leading to his 21st birthday to decide whether he wants to continue smoking or quit.
Woman seeks culprits who threw breadfruit at bus
HONOLULU (AP) — A tourist is asking the public for help finding the culprits she said threw a breadfruit through a bus window, leaving her face bloodied and bruised in Hawaii.
Valerie Zaugg of Utah was sitting on a tour bus leaving the Polynesian Cultural Center when a heavy breadfruit the size of a baseball crashed through a window and hit her in the face, she said.
A shard of glass went in her eye, she said.
The registered nurse believes her nose was broken and some bones around her eye were fractured during the incident, two Hawaii TV stations reported Sunday.
Before the incident, she had asked a family to switch seats with her, Zaugg said.
Had they not, a small child with the family could have been sitting in the seat where she was hit, she said.
Zaugg filed a police report, but as of Sunday, police had not arrested a suspect.