Honolulu Police Copper Sting

The Honolulu Police Department undercover operation called "Full Copper Jacket" involving Air Force special agents, netted two recycle dealers in Honolulu on Thursday, February 15, 2007. Hawaii legislators are considering stiffer fines and an implementation of fingerprint data for recycling transactions. Hawaii Law Enforcement Coalition and The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries are both involved in influencing the final wording of the proposed law.

The clandestine cop told the buyer, Kyung Hee Chon, that the 653-pound spool was 'stolen' and Chon purchased the HECO loaned copper regardless. According to remarks made by Major Kurt Kendro of the Honolulu Police Department, as reported on the web page honoluluadvertiser.com on Friday, February 23, 2007, "...the undercover officer allegedly mentioned it was stolen to the dealer..."

See video of Honolulu Police Department at the Aiea Recycling, 1811 Dillingham Blvd., after Chon was arrested as a result of the sting operation here:

The sting operation is a backlash to the repetitive looting that is contributing to the erosion of the public infrastructure. The Honolulu Police Department reasons that if there is no market for stolen copper then the pilfering will diminish. Rolf Christ, of R and R Solar Supply said of the copper thieves, "They're brazen. They know what they're doing. Somebody's buying the stuff from them otherwise they wouldn't be coming back," as reported by thehawaiichannel.com on February 12, 2007.

The honoluluadvertiser.com web site posted on February 2, 2007 the following in regards to the repeated thefts near Nimitz and Kamehameha where as, Scott Ishikawa of the Hawaii State Department of Transportation was quoted as saying "We've replaced the copper twice already, and it's been stolen twice. It was taken the day after it was replaced, so we are not replacing it at this time. Somebody is obviously watching what we're doing. It's affecting a whole lot of different organizations, and it is frustrating."

In related news entailing the looting of the public's transportation framework, the Hawaii Department of Transportation has had an experimental pedestrian crosswalk light stolen twice at the bus stop crosswalk in front of Makaha Surfside. Carl "Pinkie" Johansen died at 85-175 Farrington Highway on Monday, February 26, 2007 at that uncontrolled marked crosswalk.

The high price of copper is what has spurred the surge of copper thefts. Bloomsbury predict that there will be a copper glut in 2007 as reported by the Wall Street Journal on the web page online.wsj.com, February 27, 2007.