Campus Alert Archive
UH Mānoa

A Saturday-Morning Burglary at Webster Hall's Electrical Room Severs Fiber to Four UH Mānoa Buildings, Triggering a Clery Timely Warning

HIburglarytimely warninghigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM HST, an unknown individual gained entry to the electrical room at Webster Hall on the UH Mānoa campus and caused significant damage to fiber-optic cables. The attack knocked out phone and internet services across Gilmore Hall, Spalding Hall, Hamilton Library, and the Agricultural Engineering Institute, and also disrupted power across eleven campus buildings including the Campus Center and Athletics Department. The UH Mānoa Department of Public Safety issued a Clery timely warning the following day requesting tips and warning the community about ongoing suspicious activity.

Alerts
1
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Public R1 · HI
~17,500 studentsUH Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTWebsite
Verified verbatimUH Mānoa Department of Public Safety official bulletin810 chars
Burglary at Webster Hall: Yesterday, Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 11:30 a.m., a burglary was reported at Webster Hall at UH Mānoa. Unknown individual(s) gained entry into the electrical room within Webster Hall. The individual(s) caused significant damage to the fiber optic cables located inside the electrical room disrupting phone and internet services within Gilmore Hall, Spalding Hall, Hamilton Library, and the Agricultural Engineering Institute. UH ITS is working to restore services to the affected buildings. Honolulu Police are investigating. The UH Mānoa Department of Public Safety (DPS) requests notification at (808) 956-6911 or the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) at 911 if you have any information regarding this incident or if you observe suspicious people, vehicles, or activity on campus.
The DPS bulletin was published Sunday February 9 — one day after the Saturday February 8 burglary — illustrating the Clery 'timely warning' standard where the obligation is to alert promptly once the continuing-threat assessment is complete, not in real time
The bulletin is unusually informational rather than directive: no 'avoid the area', no 'shelter in place' language, because the threat had ceased before discovery. Instead the alert recruits the campus community as crime-tip witnesses
The four named buildings — Gilmore Hall (CTAHR offices), Spalding Hall (Korean Studies), Hamilton Library (the main library), and the Agricultural Engineering Institute — represent a strikingly diverse impact for a single electrical-room intrusion
Notable for what it omits: no description of suspects, no mention of motive, no estimated cost of damage. UH DPS frequently lacks suspect descriptions for after-the-fact burglaries
Context

Background

UH Mānoa is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi System, an R1 public research university with about 17,500 students located in the Mānoa Valley above Honolulu. Webster Hall houses physiology and physical science programs in central campus, and its electrical room serves as a fiber-optic distribution hub for adjacent academic buildings. On the morning of Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM HST, an unknown individual entered the locked electrical room and caused significant damage to fiber-optic cabling, severing phone and internet to Gilmore Hall, Spalding Hall, Hamilton Library, and the Agricultural Engineering Institute. Local reporting indicated eleven campus buildings ultimately lost power, including the Campus Center and Athletics Department, with restoration taking days. UH Mānoa Department of Public Safety issued a Clery timely warning the next day, and Honolulu Police continued to seek a suspect through at least February 11. The case is unusual in two respects: it is an example of infrastructure-targeting campus crime (rare compared to theft, assault, or burglary of personal property), and the alert is purely informational rather than directive — recruiting the community to share crime tips rather than to take protective action. It illustrates how UH Mānoa's DPS uses its public-safety bulletin platform for both classical 'continuing threat' Clery warnings and for crime-investigation tips that fall outside the immediate-danger framework.
Analysis

Key Findings

The burglary targeted critical campus infrastructure (a fiber-optic distribution electrical room) rather than valuables or persons — an unusual incident category in the campus-alert archive
Four named academic buildings lost phone and internet services from a single electrical-room intrusion; local reporting expanded the power-outage footprint to eleven buildings including the Campus Center and Athletics Department
The DPS timely warning was posted Sunday February 9 — one day after the Saturday February 8 burglary — illustrating the Clery 'continuing threat' delay window for after-the-fact intrusions
The alert is informational and tip-seeking rather than directive: no 'avoid', 'shelter', or 'evacuate' language, because the threat had ceased before discovery
Outcome
No injuries. Significant damage to fiber-optic cables in Webster Hall's electrical room. Phone and internet services disrupted across four academic buildings, and power outages affecting eleven buildings including the Campus Center and Athletics Department. UH ITS worked to restore services. Honolulu Police investigated; the suspect was reportedly being sought as of February 11. The incident was unusual in that it targeted infrastructure rather than property, valuables, or persons.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    Burglary at Webster Hall (UH Mānoa Department of Public Safety, official)
    manoa.hawaii.edu
  2. Social
    UH Manoa Safety Facebook post on February 9, 2025 (official)
    facebook.com
  3. News
    Power restored at UH Manoa after outage caused by burglary (KITV)
    kitv.com
  4. News
    Suspect wanted for UH Manoa burglary (Hawaii News Now)
    hawaiinewsnow.com
Tags
burglaryinfrastructure-failurepower-outagefiber-optichawaiipublic-universitymountain-westtimely-warningtip-seeking-alertinformational-only
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion