In Hawai’i we live so close to each other that I hear my neighbors blowing their nose while I watch a movie in my house. Yet, someone can take a forklift and steal a 2000 pound piece of equipment with no one seeing them? Bullshit! This is the way Hawai’i works. A three year delay in completeing this plant keeps those guys on the payroll. You can be sure that the construction company is in some way related to someone in the local government and that the new piece of equipment they get ends up being the same one that got stolen. As to the Honolulu Police doing their job? $100,000 of missing equipment is a pretty strong indicator that they are not, or that they have a different job description than you think (like slinging Ice, running gambling concessions, and other illicit activities – btw I’m not making those up, those are real activities that real HPD officers have been convicted of recently.)
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Thieves have stolen more than $100,000 worth of equipment from the city’s Sand Island Sewage Plant, KITV has learned.
The most recent theft has city officials scratching their heads. Thieves stole a centrifuge bowl that is used to separate the solids from the water in sewage.
“We couldn’t believe it. We thought it was a prank at first,” Honolulu wastewater supervisor Allen Perry said.
The bowl weighs an actual ton. It would take a forklift to steal it. The city said the bowl is worth about $55,000.
The city doesn’t know why anybody would want to steal it. After all, you can’t exactly walk into a pawnshop or the swap meet and sell it.
“It doesn’t have any value for anybody except for the piece of equipment that it operates for,” Perry said.
For the last four years, about nine contractors and subcontractors have been working on major upgrades at the facility so there was no fencing to secure the facility. Construction crews reported thefts of $60,000 worth of painting supplies, copper cabling, electric cable, tools and other items.
“The place was vulnerable during construction, and most of the things stolen were smaller,” Perry said.
The city has just installed a perimeter fence and workmen have been putting the finishing touches on electric gates.
“Between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., the facility is completely locked down. We now have the ability to secure the facility,” Perry said.
The city reported the thefts to the police department.
“We don’t have any suspects. We’re letting the Honolulu Police Department do their job,” Perry said.
The city said the thefts haven’t contributed to construction delays at this plant, which is already running three years behind schedule.
