A 21-year-old Hawaii island man already charged with stealing a county bus made his initial court appearance Wednesday for allegedly stealing a second one.
Kawelo Nakamura was scheduled to appear in Hilo District Court on first-degree theft and various other charges.
Nakamura had been on supervised release after being charged with the Aug. 4 theft of a county bus when he allegedly stole a second county bus early Monday morning.
Police Lt. Miles Chong said the buses are each valued at more than $300,000.
The second bus theft was discovered when county employees arriving at the mass transit baseyard at about 1:30 a.m. on Monday found the gate open and the lock cut. A 42-seat passenger bus was missing and reported to police.
Police said the bus may have been spotted crossing the Wailuku Bridge on Highway 19, then later on Queen Kaahumanu Highway near Mauna Lani.
At 6:24 a.m., officers pursued it on Bayfront Highway in Hilo, but the chase was stopped in the interest of public safety, police said. The bus was located at
6:45 a.m. at the Kawamoto Swim Stadium, where officers arrested Nakamura.
Police charged Nakamura on Tuesday with first-degree theft, resisting an order to stop, second-degree reckless endangering, reckless driving, driving without a commercial driver’s license, unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, criminal property damage and two counts of inattention to driving.
His bail was set at $42,000.
A grand jury indicted Nakamura last week on the first theft charge for allegedly stealing a county bus on Aug. 4. He appeared in court Tuesday, and the Circuit Court revoked his supervised release and set his bail at $18,000.
In that case, police were alerted on Aug. 5 to a hit-and-run accident in Hilo involving a stolen county bus. Police stopped and arrested Nakamura, who was driving the bus in Pahoa.
