POLICE BEAT
This time, exploding pants tipped him off
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
After helping to run down and capture an alleged bank robber last week, Joe Shimkonis is one for two when it comes to corralling suspects in Kapahulu.
Two years ago, Shimkonis saw a man with a bank-issued money bag run by his store, Mopeds Direct, on Kapahulu Avenue.
Shimkonis ran out of his shop and confronted the man. During a struggle, a dye pack loaded with red ink and pepper spray blew up in the money bag and covered Shimkonis in ink.
The suspect ran away, he said.
On Tuesday, Shimkonis' luck catching suspects would change.
Shimkonis, 40, was standing outside at about 11:30 a.m. when he saw a man walking down the street with something obviously hidden in his pants, he said.
As the man approached the spot where Shimkonis stood on the sidewalk, the dye pack in the money bag exploded.
The man pulled the money bag out, dropped it on the ground and ran across Kapahulu Avenue, Shimkonis said.
Shimkonis chased him, and a neighbor driving by who saw Shimkonis run across the street turned his car around to join in the pursuit.
Shimkonis said his neighbor pulled in front of the man while Shimkonis came up behind him and cornered him.
Police were called and, during a brief struggle, Shimkonis and his neighbor wrestled with the man to make sure he didn't have a gun.
"We had no idea while we were chasing him if he had a gun or anything," Shimkonis said.
Police officers arrested 33-year-old Ethan Levi Morgan, a felon with no permanent local address, on suspicion of first-degree robbery two minutes after the Bank of Hawaii branch at 727 Kapahulu Ave. had been robbed at 11:38 a.m.
Morgan was arrested at Paliuli Street and Fourth Avenue at 11:40 a.m.
Morgan is to be turned over to federal authorities Thursday for prosecution, Honolulu police said.
Staff writer Rod Ohira contributed to this report.
Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
