LESTER CHANGTGI Staff Writer
Share this story

ANAHOLA — Kauians lucky enough to find rare glass fishing balls on Kaua’i

beaches need to know about ocean currents and have the time to spend hours

beachcombing.

A Kaua’i man apparently found an easier way.

Curt Baxter,

19, was charged by Kaua’i police May 10 with the theft of glass balls from a

home in Anahola.

Glass balls also were reported stolen from another home in

Anahola on that day and from three other homes in Anahola on May 13. No

suspects have been arrested in these thefts.

On Thursday, following the

waiver of a preliminary hearing for Baxter, District Court Judge Clifford Nakea

bound the case over to Circuit Court for trial on June 6.

The balls are

collector items because they are no longer made for commercial fishing in great

quantities, having been replaced by plastic balls.

Les Jones, owner of

Treasures to Trash, a consignment store in Kapa’a, said Baxter sold him 11

glass balls on May 10.

While at the store, a friend told Jones that he had

seen some of the glass balls at a friend’s home in Anahola earlier.

The

owner of the balls was summoned to the Kapa’a shop and identified them as his

property, Jones said.

Baxter was arrested the same day and the balls were

seized as evidence by police.

Jones said Baxter’s family made financial

compensation.

The balls range in value from $10 to $500 and more,

depending on their size, shape and color. Glass balls that command a higher

price were used for smuggling opium in China.

Most glass balls are round,

but some come in cylindrical shapes with groves.

Most of the balls come in

green or a blue-green shade. More rare and expensive balls come in the purple

or red.

The balls range in size from that of a golf ball to that of a

basketball, and larger.

They are used to hold up nets, but occasionally

break free from worn nets and are carried eastward by ocean currents to

Hawai’i, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

The balls wash up on beaches

in East Kaua’i and on the North Shore.

“They aren’t easy to find,” a

collector said. “That is one reason they are so special.”