Authorities in Hawaii are investigating multiple complaints from people who say they were rescued when heavy rains battered Kauai — by scammers who then…
Authorities in Hawaii are investigating multiple complaints from people who say they were rescued when heavy rains battered Kauai — by scammers who then tried to extort them for cash.
One of those faux Samaritans, identified by police as Stephen Koehne – a self-described “pirate” – was busted Thursday on charges of extortion, robbery and terroristic threatening.
A man by the same name as Koehne from Kilauea, Hawaii, posted on his Facebook page early Friday, saying: “All I can say at this time is there is a lot of untruth to these allegations against me. I am humbly going to try to tell my side of the story and do my best to clear my name of this. Aloha.”
Commenters on the post bashed Koehne with one writing: “you’re a low-life piece of shyt.”
Kauai’s Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar called the weekend extortion efforts “absolutely despicable” in a phone interview with The Washington Post.
According to Kollar, three men would pull their 20-foot-long fishing boat up to the shore where desperate people were waiting to be rescued and offer to take them from the popular Tunnels Beach to the St. Regis Resort in Hanalei.
After they were on the boat and a couple of hundred yards offshore, Kollar, said, the men would “stop and say, ‘By the way, it’s $200 per person. Cash or credit. Pay now or we’re going to leave you here,’” Kollar told the news outlet, adding that the victims paid because “they felt like they didn’t have a choice.”
Big Island resident Liana Leaulii was one of those victims.
“Once we were out in the middle of the ocean, they were like, ‘Did so-and-so on the beach tell you it was $200 a head on the boat?’“ Leaulii told Hawaii News Now.
Authorities say they learned of the extortion that was going on through social media.
“We’re not going to tolerate these type of extortion (attempts) of any visitors or locals. And to the people who are doing these things, we’re gonna’ hold them accountable,” assistant Chief Bryson Ponce, of the Kauai Police Department said, according to Hawaii News Now.
Hundreds of people have been airlifted out of Kauai after the storm rains caused devastating flooding and mudslides.
