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Four of six alleged mall toy thieves turn themselves in to police

Rosemarie Bernardo
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this image still made from video taken Monday, Dec. 26, 2011, toys stolen from Toys 'R' Us are shown at the office of attorney Myles Breiner in Honolulu. Breiner says five unemployed single mothers who took the items showed up at his office with the stolen goods wrapped as presents. (AP Photo/Hawaii News Now: KHNL/KGMB)

Four of six people who were caught on video allegedly stealing items from Toys R Us at Windward Mall turned themselves in today at the Kaneohe police substation.

A mall security camera recorded five women and a man carrying toys to a vehicle in a parking lot through an employee service corridor between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 1.

Four women turned themselves in to police today, according to attorney Myles Breiner. Another woman and a man is expected to turn themselves in to police by the end of the week. Breiner said they are currently not on Oahu.

Police released still photos of the group carrying the toys through the corridor.

Twenty-four toys, with an estimated total value of more than $300, were stolen.

Breiner said the store general manager and a detective arrived today at his office, where the toys had been dropped off. The items were photographed before they were retrieved by Toys R Us.

Breiner said some of the women contacted him last week after police released footage of the Dec. 1 theft.

 

“One of the concerns is that because they’re single parents, there will be someone who will take care of their kids,” Breiner said. “They’re embarrassed and they’re frightened.”

Breiner said he’ll be representing one of the women and has made arrangements for the others to have representation.

“This seemed like a very desperate situation,” he said. “I felt I could do something to lessen the impact. Here’s an opportunity to at least improve their situation to at least receive some degree of understanding from the courts.”

He called the thefts “impulsive” and indicative of tough economic times.

“They wanted to meet their kids’ expectations,” he said. “The income gap is growing between haves and have-nots. You have very wealthy tourists who come to the islands who spend a lot of money and you have lots of local people who don’t have that kind of money.”

 

Breiner said most of the women are single, unemployed moms who stole the toys as Christmas gifts for their children out of desperation.

Breiner said the five women showed up at his office with the stolen goods wrapped as presents.

Breiner says the women know what they did was wrong and want to return the stolen toys. A witness told police they were seen making several trips to their vehicle carrying larges boxes of toys. Police say they took about $1,000 worth of merchandise.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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