Suspected robber held after phone betrays him

Technology helped nab an alleged bandit last week.

A 25-year-old man is awaiting a court appearance Tuesday after police said he robbed a poker game in Makiki and assaulted the police officers who tracked him down through a stolen smartphone.

Samuel Hufanga of Kalihi was being held Sunday at Oahu Community Correctional Center in lieu of $100,000 bail. He was charged last week with eight felonies, including four counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, first-degree theft, auto theft and first-degree assault of a police officer.

Hufanga was one of two men who entered a unit at 1340 Young St. at about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday and demanded money, according to a police affidavit filed Thursday in Honolulu District Court.

Police said Hufanga accessed the “poker game room” by hopping a wall to the back patio and walking through the open back door. He wore a mask and wielded an airsoft gun, and the man with Hufanga carried a crowbar and baseball bat while the handle of a black handgun stuck out of his waistband.

Hufanga said he heard there was “plenty money” in the game room and asked where it was located.

He grabbed the money on the table and a key to one man’s Lexus SUV, fired four shots from the pellet gun at the people in the room and searched the other rooms in the unit, the document said. He escaped in one victim’s SUV after taking $1,100 in cash from one man and an iPhone 7 from another man. The other suspect fled in the car he came in.

The owner of the iPhone was able to use a tracking app to locate his cellphone and told police his phone was pinging near Ahonui Street in Kalihi.

At about 1:30 a.m. patrol officers went to the area and found Hufanga sitting inside the stolen Lexus on Ahonui Street.

He yelled that he didn’t do anything and exited the SUV. After a brief foot chase, a police officer sprayed Hufanga with pepper spray and tried to detain him, but Hufanga struck him in the face with his left elbow, the document said.

Two other officers tried to assist, but Hufanga kept struggling on the ground, kicking, trying to push himself up and flailing his arms, the document said.

One of the two officers trying to help suffered a strained right knee and quadriceps, while the another suffered a strained lower lumbar area, the document said.

Hufanga was detained, and the robbery victims identified him as one of the suspects. The other suspect was not arrested.