PUHI — Burglars made off with more than a safe, Tuesday night. Jolynne Uyesono, manager of the Kaua‘i Community College bookstore, said in addition to taking the safe that contained some of the receipts of the second day of instruction,
PUHI — Burglars made off with more than a safe, Tuesday night.
Jolynne Uyesono, manager of the Kaua‘i Community College bookstore, said in addition to taking the safe that contained some of the receipts of the second day of instruction, the thieves made off with some candy bars and the entire stock of beef jerky.
“They must have been hungry after all that work,” Uyesono said, trying to inject a little humor into an otherwise grave situation.
Thieves broke into the bookstore some time after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and made off with the store’s safe, according to Uyesono.
“There was almost $10,000 in it,” she said. “There was also about $800 in stamps and all of the disks to back up the computers.”
Uyesono discovered the break in when she arrived for work yesterday morning, and was on the phone to the bookstore’s main office on O‘ahu.
“We had to open later than normal,” she said. “The police were here doing their investigation, and during the burglary, the thieves jammed open the drawers to the cash registers.”
Due to the electronic security measures surrounding the registers, that meant implementing backup plans so the bookstore staff could continue to service students who were still filing into the store trying to finalize their textbook and supply needs for the first week of instruction.
“Normally, we are open until 6:30 during the first week of school but after the break-in we got permission to close at 3:30 p.m.,” Uyesono said. That coincides with the closure of the college’s business office.
Uyesono said she was grateful the theft took place on the second day of instruction rather than the first day.
Because a lot of the transactions have been done using charge cards, none of those slips were affected. Uyesono added that people using the charge cards for transactions can be assured that the bookstore’s system keeps that information secure.
“The student government leaders are really upset about this incident,” Uyesono said.
Security on campus has been an issue they have been dealing with, and the break-in only adds fuel to their argument for more security, she said.
“The bookstore is on the back side of the campus and judging on how things happened, it took some time and some strength,” Uyesono said.
A KCC maintenance worker repairing the doors to the bookstore said it appeared that the thieves rolled the safe out of the bookstore, down the sidewalk past buildings and uphill to the new bypass road where it was loaded onto a vehicle and trucked off.
People with information on this incident are advised to call the Kaua‘i Police Department.
