Puna Woman Arrested on Vehicle Theft Charges

Mandy Alicuben. HPD photo.

Hawaiʻi Island police charged Puna resident Mandy Alicubena, 35, last week with offenses stemming from two separate stolen vehicles.

After conferring with prosecutors, Alicuben was charged Thursday, Sept. 22, with two counts of unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle.

Her bail was set at $20,000 and she was held in the Hilo police cellblock pending her initial court appearance Friday afternoon.

She was also charged for an unrelated bench warrant for violating terms of a deferred plea.

On Sept. 14, a 51-year-old Honoka‘a man reported that he was talking with three individuals in a parking lot of an establishment in Honoka‘a town, when one of the individuals, described as a local female, entered his Nissan pickup truck and drove off. The vehicle was located and recovered the next day in the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision in Puna.

On Sept. 20, a 20-year-old Puna woman reported that someone removed her Ford sedan from a home located in the Ainaloa Subdivision. On Sept. 21, the vehicle was observed to be on Government Beach Road in the District of Puna. Officers then contacted the female operator who was determined to be Alicuben. She was arrested and taken to the Hilo police cellblock.

Officers from the Hawaiʻi Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit continued both investigations and determined that Alicuben was also responsible for taking the pickup truck from Honokaʻa.