MEDIA RELEASE

Prosecuting Attorney Charlene Y. lboshi has announced, Third Circuit Court Judge Glenn S. Hara rejected the request by Hilo resident Joseph V. Ada, 46, for a probation sentence for a series of property crimes committed in Hilo in 2010 and 2011, and sentenced him to prison for those offenses even though he had no prior felony convictions.

He was sentenced Aug. 14.

Ada told Hara he did not believe he had a methamphetamine addiction problem even though he admitted using the drug since he was 19 years of age.

On May 29, 2012, Ada pled guilty to 12 counts of unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle in the first degree, six counts of theft in the second degree, one count of fraudulent use of a credit card and one count of identity theft in the third degree.

Each of those offenses is a class “C” felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Hara ordered the five year prison terms run concurrently with each other.

Investigation by the Hawail Police Department revealed that during the early morning hours of Oct. 26, 2011, Ada staked out the parking lot of a downtown Hilo business and waited for the owner, a middle aged woman, to arrive for work.

Her habit was to leave her purse and personal items on the passenger seat of her car, park the car, and then retrieve her personal items by walking around her car to the passenger side door.

Ada waited until she got out of her car and then got to the passenger side door first, ripped off her purse and personal items, and fled.

The victim chased after Ada and was unsuccessful in catching him but did manage to get a good description.

Detective Joel Field did a follow up investigation by interviewing another suspect and learned from him and the victim that the likely perpetrator was Ada.

On Nov. 10, 2011, Ada was arrested. When the evidence revealed that he was responsible for at least 11 other thefts from cars downtown, he was arrested and charged with those offenses as well.

Ada used stolen credit cards and debit cards that he obtained from breaking into cars at various businesses around town.

Car owners and businesses can avoid being the victims of car thieves and identity theft by following a few key steps:

1. Lock your car

The public has heard that advice many times. Some members of the public believe that not locking the car saves them from the cost of repairs caused by thieves who simply break a window or punch a door lock. To a certain extent that is true. But a locked car increases the risk to the thief that he may be caught because breaking windows and punching doors does cause a certain amount of noise and other suspicious activity. A locked car would not have saved you from being a victim of the activities of Ada because he was more than willing to break windows if necessary.

2. Do not leave personal property in the passenger compartment of
your parked vehicle

If you must leave personal property in your parked car, put it in the trunk which is a bit more difficult to break into then the passenger compartment or the glove box.

3. Do not leave credit cards or debit cards in your car

Many drivers leave a spare credit or debit card in their cars, typically in the glove compartment, for an emergency. The emergency does not happen and over time the driver may forget that the credit or debit card was in the glove compartment. Thieves know this. They can enter your car, steal the credit or debit card, and then leave your car without leaving any evidence that your car was entered. The victim will not know what has happened until he or she checks the monthly statement and finds charges or debits that were never authorized. Many members of the public think of identity theft crimes as happening via the internet. The greater percentage of identity theft crimes start with a credit or debit card stolen from a motor vehicle and then move on to illegal transactions over the internet.

4. Some members of the public think that debit and credit card
transactions are protected by the pin or other identification cards.

Most are not. The older gasoline and diesel pumps do not require pin numbers or a clerk looking at your photo identification card before dispensing fuel. Thieves, like Ada, know this and rush to the fuel vendor with older pumps to steal fuel for themselves and sometimes for their criminal associates, who line up like a convoy for free fuel, courtesy of the debit or credit card that you left in your car. You, the consumer, can subtly persuade your fuel vendor to change over to newer pumps that require entry of a pin number or approval of a human being before dispensing fuel, by only patronizing those vendors who have installed the newer equipment or procedures. Thieves, like Ada, also know which retailers around town will accept a credit card without asking or comparing it to a photo identification card such as a driver’s license. You, as a consumer, can change sloppy business behavior by retailers by thanking those retailers who routinely ask for a photo identification card before making any credit or debit card sales. The thieves know that many retailers only follow that procedure for large transactions. So, they make many smaller transactions and the end result is the same. Some retailers believe their customers will feel harassed if the retailer asks for a photo identification card before approving a credit or debit card transaction. Persuade the retailer that such thinking is misguided. The costs of fraudulent transactions are passed on to you, the consumer, in the form of higher merchandise costs, and higher interest rates on credit transactions.

5. Surveillance cameras at business establishments are extremely
helpful to law enforcement in solving crimes and catching thieves before they can make more victims.

But, surveillance cameras, like any other piece of equipment, require periodic maintenance. The surveillance camera that does not work is useless. The thieves know which businesses have kept them in working order and which businesses are keeping non-working cameras only for show.

Businesses that upgrade surveillance systems and keep those systems in good working order save taxpaying businesses and taxpaying consumers, large sums of money by reducing the costs of crime, including the costs associated with the investigation and prosecution of crime.