(NEW) READERS' SUBMISSION: Rooster Arrested for Contaminating Police Crime Scene in Kahului

Adam Meapaikii was just cruising up Wakea Avenue in Kahului Tuesday en route to filling up the tank of his Toyota Tacoma, when he saw all the police cars.

Though he kept his eyes on the road, when he carefully peeked over to see what was going on, while stuck at a traffic signal, he caught a glimpse of a yellow "Do Not Cross" police tape ~ and some suspicious activity near it.

While stopped there briefly, Meapaikii snapped a bunch of shots with his mobile phone camera, and rolled away once the light turned green.

"I've seen that yellow tape on TV and in the movies, but never in real life," said Meapaikii, of Haiku. "I knew how serious it was to go under or past that tape, because it could ruin a crime scene."

So he caught the action on a digital file and sent it to Maui Insight to ask what it was all about.

We learned that Maui Police Department had just issued a news release about an investigation they were conducting about a bunch of auto thefts at Kahului Airport, that seem to be continuing even though the airport has a lot of cameras operating all the time, and no car can exit the public parking lot without the driver somehow paying a machine and leaving ample evidence.

The investigation nudged detectives to an area near the Queen Kaahumanu Center, where a witness had reported suspicious off-road driving the night before.

Police had taped off the crime scene to try to gather tire prints to match some found at the airport's public parking lot, where cars are stolen willy-nilly pretty much every day.

What they encountered was a nosy rooster who may have hampered the case, officials said.

"Now all we have are these tire tracks with a bunch of those little chicken-feet prints all over them," said Sgt. Frank Duffy of Maui Police Department. "All our photos now just look like the cover  of an album by some '60s garage band."

The rooster was arrested and booked at MPD for a variety of charges including obstruction of justice. He was booked into the Maui Community Corrections Center, and later released after posting $1,000 bail, officials said.

The police report said the chicken was from Kahului.

The investigation into the mystery ring of auto thefts at Kahului Airport, most likely run by insiders, continues.

(Readers are encouraged to send photos, news tips, and story ideas to Maui Insight. We might even use one now and then).