The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-07-02
-YEAR-OLD
SNEAK THIEF.
CErOm wednesday's Advertlser.l

(From Wednesdays Advertiser.)
eleven years old and he can give
cards and spades to any sneak thief in
the Territory"
This is the way Chief Joe Leal sizes
up an undergrown little Hawaiian
whom he took into custody the other
day, thereby clearing up the mysterious
disappearance of money and other
small articles at the Central Grammar
School. Kupuna is the youngsters
! name. and he is the champion rascal
for his age, according to Honolulu's 8
Chief of Detectives. As a result of
his age, too, the prodigy is now at
liberty on broken parole.
Not content with stealing money
from individuals, Kupuna has confessed
that he pilfered the poor-box at the
Catholic church, getting a pretty good
sum of money. Another time Kupuna
visited the Salvation Army headquar-
ters while meeting was being held,
and he came away SO richer than when
he entered. He had stolen the money
from lady who was sitting in theS,
seat just in front of him. This matteS
was considerable of mystery until '
! yesterday, when Kupuna confessed up.
@ANChluAuE W HIS CoultSSlOu, huDul1Z'|
has gotten away with over $50 in ca
altogether since he started in the "pf<
fession.' OF this, $40 was taken from
Mrs. Mckenzie, who has privatd
school for Korean children in the city.
Mrs. Mckenzie suspected Kupuna, and
! it was through her complaint that Joe
Leal was able to break the little ras-
cal IS run.
He is audacious, and even went SO !
far as to demand of Apana whether or
not the detectives had warrant for
his arrest. Though not yet in his teens,
Kupuna has smashed all known records
for out-and-out lying. He lied up and
down to Joe Leal, without the slightest
flicker or change of cOuntenance. 1t
did not take long, however, to get him
entangled in his stories, and then he
confessed it all.
Besides his thefts of cash, Kupuna
has been a terror to hen 'snests and
chicken roosts on upper Liliha street
for considerable time past. He told of
robbing various places along Liliha
street.
Chief Leal took the youthful burglar
into custody Monday afternoon but, of
course, under the new Juvenile law,
was unable to hold him overnight. The
boy has no father, only a partly-de
mented mother, and when Leal let him
go at eight o clock Monday evening
he made him promise to return to the
police station yesterday This Kupuna
promptly forgot to do, and although
Leal and Apana 10Th had their eyes
open looking for Nhim all day yester-
day, he was not 10 be found.
What to do with him when he catches
the youthful thief again is a question
that is bothering LeAl. He is convinc-
ed that the only plake for Kupuna &
the Reform School, aS he is absolutel
incorrigible. If he i5ffound before on
thirty this afternodh, Leal will -
him before Judge WhStasX .aad<1
he be sent to the w W
School where he will s q S
nifty to forget how to
he will have to stay tiieS #
On the other hand, if tic
found until late in the afternd
can not do otherwise than to s.
go until the following day. 1t is
one particular, it is said, that tin
/ Juvenile law is not working out -
cessfully.
The boy thief had not cent of tin
money he has stolen ON his person when
Leal searched him the other day, and
it is the belief of the Chief that he
has lost it all shooting craps. The boy
says that, save for So for a suit of
clothes whicn he wore, he had not spent
any of the money at the stores. That
he may have cached the remainder is,
another theory.
-s.$-s--