By CAROLYN LUCAS-ZENK
By CAROLYN LUCAS-ZENK
Stephens Media
Burglars ransacked a Captain Cook group home for five men with developmental disabilities Sunday afternoon, leaving behind emotions of violation, fear, anger, confusion and sadness.
Arc of Kona weekend supervisor Tania Leslie said she and four residents returned to the group home, located above Choice Mart, around 4 p.m. Sunday. While helping inside one resident who uses a walker, Leslie noticed the lights were on, the back door open, a window screen on the floor, two bedrooms destroyed and a drawer open in another.
“I had a sick feeling. It felt like someone was still inside, even though there wasn’t,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was just terrible and so sad.”
Leslie instantly got everyone outside of the house and called the Hawaii Police Department. Leslie was told police officers were responding to another South Kona burglary and that the area is experiencing a rash of burglaries.
Media inquires Monday regarding this break-in and increased burglaries were referred to Capt. Chad Basque, of the Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Section, who could not be reached for comment at press time.
Leslie said it took at least 15 minutes for police to arrive Sunday. She also called her friend, Police Officer Renee Morinaka, who was off-duty at the time and came over to help. Leslie thanked Morinaka for taking calm control of the situation, as well as assisting her in filing out the police report and comforting the residents.
Leslie doesn’t think the group home was targeted or that burglars are familiar with residents. She and four residents left the group home around noon to watch a movie in Keauhou. The other remaining resident was with his direct service worker and not home during the burglary.
Arc of Kona vice president for support services Jeani Navarro reassured no one was at risk during the break-in, the group home, built in 1975, is safe and residents are cared for by a professional staff 24 hours daily. Unfortunately, she said, burglaries are something that naturally occurs in the community and it happened this time for these five men who have very few possessions. Part of the sadness, she added, is their inability to recapture the loss of belongings and having to overcome the sense of violation.
Besides kicking in doors with a bed frame, thrashing several rooms and causing destruction, the burglars stole numerous items, including medication, first aid box, cash, an iPod, DVD player, flat-screen television, backpacks, radios and batteries, Leslie said.
“These men all have special needs and are all aware and confused as to what happened to their home. The staff has been reassuring them things will return to normal, offering therapy and cleaning up the group home,” she said. “One resident had the one thing he valued and worked very hard for taken away — his giant flat screen television. He works at Safeway and saved money to pay for it himself.”
Another resident has no family members to assist him in replacing the lost items, Navarro said.
Leslie said one man slept with the lights on and his bedroom door open so he could see her husband, who slept over on the couch to make residents feel more secure Sunday night.
Leslie encouraged the public to look out for each other, as well as report suspicious people in neighborhoods and suspected burglaries in progress to the Police Department.
Email Carolyn Lucas-Zenk at clucas-zenk@westhawaiitoday.com.