Posted on 01/17/2015 6:26:18 PM PST by proxy_user
“Waikiki is a zoo.”
Yes it is, and has been for a long time, I was there 30 years ago. Went to the beach at night. I asked a group of teens where I could hear some good music. I’m a steel player. I’m 6’2” and 200 pounds. The only things those “kids” wanted was to have me join them in rolling Japanese tourists.
Har!
Just watched latest update on Golf Channel about 30 minutes ago.
Witnesses reported to police that they saw several men take him out of the trunk of their car and dump him in a ditch in a park. .....There, a bunch of homeless people began kicking and beating him. The retired military guy heard the ruckus and ran off the attackers, picked him up and took him back to his hotel. .....Paramedics tended to him at the hotel. ....Surveillance video at the bar shows he exited the restroom at 11:07pm local and several men walked him out to the parking area.
So it appears like our ideas of him being lured out by a woman are not correct. It is strange he would go with guys he didn’t know.
The homelessness there now is appalling.
They are all over the streets and parks.
.
Famous is in the eye of the beholder.
It is strange he would go with guys he didnt know.
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He was being kidnapped. As some previous posters have suggested, he may have been drugged. ....Reports are that he was not sure what had happened to him and may even have a concussion.
It happened to a good friend of mine about two years ago, just a couple of blocks back from the main drag.
Eight or more guys, mixed races (whites, blacks and Asians), kicked some of his teeth out and made a general mess of him. They did not look like a gang - they were spread around the area. After one guy started the trouble, the swept in from all directions. The State of Hawaii did not bill him for the emergency room, and their fund for crime victims paid his medical and dental bills from back home after he filed a claim.
They have been rolling drunks and ripping off tourists for generations there - it was popular during WWII. I have travelled there about a dozen times and never had a problem, even though I have wandered around quite a bit at night. I don’t drink or do drugs though. Being drunk, going to buy/use drugs, or picking up prostitutes are the common ways to get targeted.
There is quite a culture of fighting there - all the Asian martial arts are popular, and Samoans in particular are notorious for fighting a lot (on average, they are also the most massive people on Earth as well).
So yes, it is very realistic to get robbed and beaten while drinking in Waikiki. Especially if you get sloppy drunk and rowdy, for which Australians are reknown.
What seems surprising to me is that he was apparently drinking in a high-class place, and his drink was spiked. Those places generally try to keep their customers safe, and have bouncers and security guys to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Hookers and thugs are quickly removed.
Was in Waikiki once, way back in ‘78. We were cautioned not to travel alone, especially if you’d been drinking.
Oahu is a madhouse. I have an office in Kailua. I avoid Honolulu / Waikiki like the Plague. My gut tells he was robbed by an off island girl who planned to rob him with her boyfriend. The local pros know better.
I found out the place; it is the Amuse Wine Bar:
http://www.amusewinebar.com/amuse-drink/amuse-wine-cellar
It looks like the kind of bar where you order a $200 bottle of wine and charge it on your black Amex card. If somebody did get in and drug his drink, I suspect they are going to be very upset about this.
Thank you for the update. This isn’t in Waikiki at all. It’s an upscale retail area next to Ala Moana Center and not really where there would much if any random street crime. Actually as a resident in the 1950s and 60s and frequent visitor since I feel pretty safe in Honolulu.
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