Employees at a Kailua-Kona hotel captured an alleged lanai-leaping cat burglar on Tuesday and held him for police.
Employees at a Kailua-Kona hotel captured an alleged lanai-leaping cat burglar on Tuesday and held him for police.
Officers responded shortly after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to Uncle Billy’s Kona Bay Hotel, where employees were holding a suspect, 29-year-old Elijah Prevetz-Lafayette, whom witnesses said had been jumping from balcony to balcony.
Prevetz-Lafayette allegedly entered an occupied room through the balcony’s screen door, took three bags and then returned to the lanai. One of the room’s occupants, a 20-year-old woman from Switzerland, struggled with the intruder on the lanai and regained control of the bags.
No one was injured during the struggle.
Hotel employees then watched as the suspect allegedly jumped to another balcony and entered an unoccupied room using the same technique. They then detained Prevetz-Lafayette after he left the room and went to the parking lot, police said.
Both lanai screens were damaged during the alleged burglary.
Police arrested Prevetz-Lafayette on a $10,000 bench warrant for contempt of court and detained him while detectives investigated the break-in.
According to court records, Prevetz-Lafayette was on supervised release on pending burglary and felony theft charges filed on Oct. 26. Standard terms and conditions of such release include not committing additional offenses.
On Wednesday, detectives charged him with the hotel burglary, plus theft, property damage and trespassing. Bail on those charges was set at $37,000.
At the initial court appearance on Thursday, Kona District Judge Margaret Masunaga denied a request by Prevetz-Lafayette’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Frederick Macapinlac, to free Prevetz-Lafayette on supervised release, but did reduce his bail to $27,500, according to court records.
The judge also ordered Prevetz-Lafayette to appear at 2:30 p.m. today for a preliminary hearing.
A call left with the manager of the hotel was not returned by press time. Staff said there was no one else available for comment.
West Hawaii Today reporter Graham Mildrum contributed to this story.