The bell stolen more than a week ago from a Buddhist temple in a small former plantation village on the Hamakua Coast was found Thursday afternoon in a semi-secluded spot between Papaikou and Pepeekeo.
Rose Broughton, secretary of the Papaaloa Hongwanji Mission, said a man from Ahualoa stopped off Old Onomea Road to eat lunch and found the bell.
“He called up a church member from the Papaikou Hongwanji, and she came over here, and the bell is here, at the side of a driveway,” Broughton said, adding the Papaikou congregation member didn’t want her name publicized. “She called me. Apparently, the man who found the bell stopped at North Hilo police station (in Laupahoehoe) and told them.”
Richard Fujii, the temple’s president, called a couple of friends to help haul the 96-year-old, 100-plus pound bell back to the mission after police process it as evidence. He said it might not immediately go back to its previous perch in an A-frame structure on a side walkway at the 112-year-old temple.
“We have a bell now that we put up … because we lost this bell,” Fujii said. “But it’s good to have it back, though.” He said the spare bell came from a former meeting hall in Puualaea, near Laupahoehoe.
“We didn’t know we had a spare until we looked for it, and it’s an old one,” added Broughton.
Broughton said before re-installation, the church needs “to find a better way to secure” the ornate bell, which was cast in Japan in 1919.
The bell was found sitting partially on a brown tarp near a gulch with a stream running through it.
“If (the thieves) had rolled it a little further back, it would’ve been in the gully,” Broughton said. “We’re very grateful to have it back.”
Anyone with any information about the theft is asked call the police nonemergency line at 935-3311 or Officer Robert Panem at 962-2120, or email Sergeant Jefferson Grantz at jefferson.grantz@hawaiicounty.gov. Those who prefer anonymity may call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300 and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
