An Ewa Beach Longs Drugs store came close to becoming the latest victim of theft after three women attempted to steal 18 cases of Spam. 
 
 Kurt Fevella watched it all unfold while shopping Wednesday night. 
 
 "When I was in the cereal aisle in the corner of my eye I saw a wagon full of Spam." explained Fevella. 
 
 That’s when he went on spam surveillance, staking out the exit. 
 
 "I didn't say anything. I just stood by the door and the person that was trying to steal all the Spam just pushed the wagon and said ‘Here!’ " said Fevella. 
 
 He said the suspected culprits were three women, and described the runner as having short black hair and a tattoo on half of her back. 
 
 While the attempt to steal Spam may seem comical, theft is a major problem in Hawaii. According to Retail Merchants of Hawaii, it’s something that’s especially prominent with canned goods. 
 
 "We're seeing it more and more and there's a lot more volume being taken out of stores now. It's a combination of felony charges have gone from $300 up to $750. So now if you steal $750 it's a felony. So people are stealing right up underneath." Said President of Retail Merchants of Hawaii Tina Yamaki. 
 
 Yamaki says unfortunately, it's turned into a black market commodity. Often the stolen items are re-sold at places like swap meets, or even right out of the back of cars. 
 
 She explained there's a typical method. 
 
 "There's always someone who's trying to distract from the person who's stealing the things, so security will look at the and person distracting and then they'll go.” Said Yamaki. 
 
 You'll notice in stores, many items are now locked up because they're stolen so often. Other frequently stolen items include clothing, electronics, high-end liquor, and tobacco. 
 
 The theft isn’t only bad news for retailer’s pockets, but shoppers as well. 
 
 "It's really unfortunate for the people of Hawaii because the prices go up and it's also unfortunate for the retailers as well." Said Yamaki. 
 
 Retail Merchants of Hawaii says if you ever see someone trying to steal something, tell a manager or worker immediately. 
 
 The women didn’t end up stealing the Spam, but did escape with bags full of other product. 
 
 The incident is still under investigation. 
 
 Only in Hawaii... a Spam heist! https://t.co/CPzPQkd3mQ — Kayla Berube (@KaylaBerube) September 15, 2017 
 
 Glad the thief got caught 
 
 Hope they get jailed.....trying to steal 18 cases of Spam what were they thinking https://t.co/KKa7zDjfVl — Lisa ???????????? (@lemonbar4948) September 15, 2017 
 
 This feels like an only in Hawai'i thing. ?? https://t.co/nYUMGSkWMu — Michelle ???? (@gallifreygal63) September 15, 2017 ||||| Several cases of Spam were stolen Wednesday night from a Pearl City grocery store. 
 
 It happened at Safeway in Waimalu. Customer Arlene Sua was right behind the man when she says he grabbed eight cases of Spam and walked right out the door. 
 
 “That’s when I thought, ‘Okay, this isn’t real. No, he’s not going to take it, no, no. Next thing I knew once he passed the register, that’s when I heard the intercom management to the front and it was really fast,” Sua said. 
 
 She says the man got away with it. 
 
 A similar incident occurred just last week when three women tried to steal a shopping cart with 18 cases of the popular canned meat from Longs Drugs in Ewa Beach. 
 
 In that case, a shopper confronted them, so they left the Spam behind and instead ran off with other stolen items. 
 
 So why are we seeing more of this type of crime? 
 
 KHON2 spoke with a retail expert who says it’s because of a law passed last year that raised the threshold level for felony theft from $300 to $750. 
 
 Tina Yamaki, president of Retail Merchants of Hawaii, says the higher threshold means thieves can steal more before facing stiffer penalties. 
 
 “They know that so they steal right under that $750 line,” she said. 
 
 Thieves aren’t just targeting canned goods. All types of merchandise are being stolen, and because of the law, thieves are stealing more of them. 
 
 Among the items being targeted by more thieves are designer clothes, electronics, and power tools. 
 
 Yamaki says thieves are not just stealing more items, they’re also getting more dangerous. 
 
 “They’re just getting a lot more brazen. A lot of times when loss prevention is trying to apprehend them, they’re being attacked. Either they’re getting punched or they’re seeing knives being used. I’ve heard of some guns a couple of times,” said Yamaki. 
 
 She adds that many stores have taken to putting targeted items behind counters and even locked up. She encourages customers to report the thefts, because in the end, we all pay the price. 
 
 “If you see somebody stealing something, let the store clerks know, because a lot of times when things are stolen, it raises up the prices, because somebody has to pay and unfortunately it’s always the customer who ends up paying,” said Yamaki. ||||| 
 
 A “Hawaii collector’s edition” Spam can at a grocery store in Kailua, Hawaii in 2004. (Lucy Pemoni/AP) 
 
 Last month in the Pearl City community on Oahu, Safeway customer Arlene Sua watched as a man suddenly grabbed eight cases of Spam and headed for the door. She thought “‘Okay, this isn’t real. No, he’s not going to take it, no, no,” she told KHON TV. 
 
 But it was real. The man took off with the Spam and disappeared. 
 
 Elsewhere on the island at about the same time, three women loaded up shopping carts at a Long’s drugstore with 18 cases of — you guessed it — Spam. They made a rush for the exit. Fortunately, an alert customer, Kurt Fevella, saw the attempted heist in progress, stationed himself at the door on Spam patrol and stopped them in their tracks. They shoved the carts toward at him and took off, Fevella told KITV4. 
 
 A shop at a downtown mall wasn’t so lucky. The Honolulu Police Department is now offering a $1,000 reward for a man (and an apparent accomplice) who entered a store on Oct. 3, grabbed a case of Spam and punched a security guard who attempted to stop him. 
 
 Police reported that the thief “fled in an unknown direction.” 
 
 These Spam snatchers are not hungry people desperate for Spam, said Tina Yamaki, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii. They are most likely part of a Spam black market that’s taking off in a state where the demand for Spam knows no bounds. 
 
 “It’s a staple,” Yamaki told The Washington Post. 
 
 The thefts have proliferated to the point that some businesses are putting Spam in plastic cases under lock and key, she said, along with the more conventional and more expensive shoplifting targets such as electronics, Gillette Power Fusion razor refills and, as it happens, canned corned beef, also popular in Hawaii. 
 
 
 
 Spam musubi. (Larry Crowe/AP) 
 
 To buy a can of Spam, you have to ask a salesperson to retrieve it. 
 
 Yamaki thinks Spam has become a form of currency, particularly for drug addicts in need of quick cash. With Spam selling for roughly $2.50 per 12-ounce can (depending on where in Hawaii you look), a thief who paid nothing for an 8-pack or a case of 12 can turn a decent profit underselling the retailers from whom they stole. 
 
 “It’s organized retail crime,” said Yamaki. “It’s not like ‘I’m going in to steal Spam to feed my family. I’m going in with a list of things I want to steal.’” 
 
 The thieves work in teams, one to distract onlookers, the others to “run out with Spam.” 
 
 “We hear a lot of rumors where it’s going,” Yamaki said. “We’ve heard they work through middlemen. We’ve heard that they’re selling it from the back of their cars. We’ve heard all kinds of rumors. Whether they’re true or not, I’m not sure.” 
 
 To some mainland Americans, this may all seem funny. But mainlanders often think of Spam either as junk email or a cheap meat that comes in a can and has no taste, which is true if you just eat plain Spam from a can. After all, how flavorful is a mixture of pork with ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrite? 
 
 But in Hawaii, nobody eats it plain out of the can. They eat “Spam fried rice,” or “Spam and eggs” or a Korean spam stew called budae jjigae and especially Spam musubi, a sushi-like snack of cooked rice, Spam and often teriyaki sauce all wrapped in seaweed. (Try it in Hawaii, you’ll like it, Anthony Bourdain once advised. “They love it,” he said. “They’ll make you love it.”) 
 
 And they eat it in vast quantities and have since World War II, when conventional meat was scarce and the thousands of GIs based in Hawaii ate the Hormel product as lunch meat. 
 
 
 
 Vendors sell Spam-themed merchandise in Honolulu. (AP) 
 
 Now Hawaii residents consume more per capita than any other state, some five million pounds a year, “six cans for every man, woman and child,” as National Geographic once noted with a dash of disapproval, commenting that “a 12-oz can is supposed to contain six servings, and each serving includes 25 percent of the U.S. recommended daily fat intake and 33 percent of a day’s sodium.” 
 
 But in Hawaii, they don’t make fun of Spam. They celebrate Spam, literally, with an annual “Spam Jam” in Waikiki. 
 
 But thefts of Spam in bulk, by the case, appear to be a relatively recent phenomenon, Yamaki said. She attributes the thefts to a state law enacted last year that changed the definition of a felony from a theft worth at least $350 or to one worth at least $750. 
 
 So a thief could make off with about 300 cans before risking a felony charge. “They steal right under” that $750 cutoff, Yamaki said. 
 
 That’s why the Oahu online publication, Honolulu Civil Beat, found cans of Spam locked up in a case at a Walgreens this week. 
 
 “Items electronically monitored for theft,” said the sign. 
 
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– It's no secret that Hawaii can't get enough Spam—the Washington Post reports Hawaii residents eat five million tons of the canned meat every year—but this is ridiculous. After a series of brazen Spam heists, the Honolulu Civil Beat found Spam at a Walmart in Kalihi under lock and key. Meanwhile, signs at Tamura's Markets on Oahu read: "All the corned beefs are relocated at the front. Please ask Tamura’s staff for assistance. Sorry for the inconvenience.” The extra security follows a theft last month in which a man absconded from a Safeway in Waimalu with eight cases of Spam, KHON reports. That same month, three women were foiled while trying to steal 18 cases of Spam from a Longs Drugs in Ewa Beach, according to KITV. And earlier this month a man punched a security guard at a Honolulu mall and escaped with a single case of the canned meat. While Spam is a "staple" in Hawaii, Tina Yamaki says thieves aren't stealing it to eat. The president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii says she thinks cans of Spam are being used as currency by desperate drug addicts. “It’s organized retail crime,” Yamaki tells the Post. “It’s not like, ‘I’m going in to steal Spam to feed my family.'" She adds: “We’ve heard they work through middlemen. We’ve heard that they’re selling it from the back of their cars. We’ve heard all kinds of rumors." Yamaki says the increase in Spam thefts is at least partly due to a change in theft laws passed last year that increased the felony theft threshold from $300 to $750. Thieves can now steal approximately 300 cans of Spam before facing harsher felony penalties.