The take-away point is that now we know it is possible.

It is possible to crack a car break-in case. It is possible to recover stolen items in a matter of days.

It is possible to get the accused into court to answer charges less than a week after the crime is committed.

Possible, but not probable, unless you're a high-priority victim with high-priority items stolen.

Last Wednesday, an HPD officer had his car broken into. His gun, badge and uniform were stolen. A day later, the gun was recovered. The day after that, the badge, gun belt and radio were found. By Saturday, a suspect was charged and yesterday, the accused made his first court appearance.

And we thought that stuff only happened on TV.

In the first season of "The Shield," the raw and brilliant cop drama on FX, the central character pulls a neat trick to score points with the administrator of a private school in an effort to secure admission for his son. He looks up the case file and recovers an antique ring, a treasured heirloom, that had been stolen.

When he returns the ring to the woman, she expresses her surprise that the police had the ability to find something that seemed so untraceable and unimportant to anyone else but her. The detective says that almost every crime can be solved, but what makes or breaks a case is somebody's attention.

Perhaps that is true for real-life police departments as well.

HPD sure flipped this case quickly. How many civilians are still waiting in vain to hear about the stuff that got jacked out of their cars and houses? Once stuff is gone, it's gone and your best hope is that it'll show up in a big sweep of the warehouse of some major fence operation.

But can you blame them? Police are called out to everything big and little, from kids' lunch money beefs to nut jobs bringing guns to work. They are hamstrung with the limitations of budget, priorities and procedure. Practicality dictates they can't search for every item.

Nice to know, though, that when they really need to, they can, and with great efficiency; and that right there is a deterrent to evil-doers.

The other lesson here is the reality of vulnerability. Even if your car is locked and parked in broad daylight, even if you're trained to understand the worst of human nature and even if you're a big dude with a gun and a badge, your car can get jacked. Kinda makes us regular folks feel not-so-stupid for suffering the popped lock.

Clearly, it can happen to anyone. Nice to know that, though it may happen infrequently, these crimes can be solved.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.