Man who allegedly burglarized tourists’ car arrested

Police arrested yesterday morning a man who allegedly burglarized the car of a tourist family at Suicide Cliff in Marpi.

Calistro Crisostimo Jr., 24, was arrested for burglary and theft. A $50,000 cash bail was initially imposed for his temporary liberty.

Crisostimo was taken before Superior Court associate judge David Wiseman for a bail hearing yesterday afternoon.

Hur Kyung Hoi, his wife, mother, and two daughters positively identified Crisostimo as the operator of a get-way pickup truck.

The victims also identified the defendant as the person who allegedly threatened them with a rock while they were in their rental car.

The tourists lost a bag containing passports, IBM laptop, $300 cash, and other items.

Detective George Fleming David stated in his report that on Wednesday afternoon, police received a report about a burglary incident.

David said investigation showed that while Hoi and his family were at Suicide Cliff at 4:20pm, Hoi saw a man within the rear passenger seats of their rental car. The man took the bag of Hoi’s wife and ran toward a parked pickup truck.

Hoi immediately informed his family about the burglary. They then chased the getaway truck with license plate ABS-453.

The truck proceeded to a dirt road in the Marpi area. When Hoi parked his car alongside the truck, he noticed that the person who took the bag was the driver. The driver was with a passenger, who was using a newspaper to cover his or her face.

The driver got off the truck, asked “What’s wrong?” then picked up a big rock. He attempted to throw the rock at Hoi, who was still inside the car.

The operator then went back inside the truck and took off.

Hoi described the driver as six feet tall, skinny, and with a missing tooth in the lower jaw.

Detective David said that on Thursday he went to Crisostimo’s house in Koblerville and talked to him and his sister, Annie.

David said that Crisostimo and Annie admitted they were in Marpi on the day in question and that they had noticed a red car with tourists following them.

David said that on the same day, the victims arrived at the Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigation Division where they identified Crisostimo in a photo line-up as the driver.

Crisostimo has two pending criminal cases, according to court records.