Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth announced today that the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney will be dropping all charges made against Angelo Valentino.  Mr. Valentino was arrested at the Hilo Home Depot store on July 7, 2020, after reports were made that a female had zip ties placed on her vehicle.  It was further reported to police that Mr. Valentino broke into the female’s vehicle and then assaulted the female.  Based upon the information at the scene, police made the lawful arrest of Mr. Valentino.

This incident was widely discussed on a Facebook post by Mayoral Candidate Mikey Glendon, who said the female was his girlfriend, who informed him that she had found zip ties on her vehicle.  He said that he went to Home Depot and had friends block all exits, allowing nobody to leave the Home Depot parking lot.  He believed there were males/a male inside the lot or Home Depot who were intent on abducting or harming women.  He accused Mr. Valentino of breaking into his girlfriend’s vehicle and assaulting her.  He also complained that Home Depot would not provide its security videos to him.

Prosecutor Roth said after reviewing the Home Depot security video tapes, both inside of the store and outside of the store, it was determined that Mr. Valentino arrived at the Home Depot, parked his car and then went directly into the store and went shopping.  After making his purchase, he went straight to his car and started to leave the parking lot.  However, vehicles had blocked the parking lot exits.

On the videos, it can be seen that Mr. Valentino exited his vehicle to see what was going on.  He approached the female’s vehicle, which was parked in the middle of the road blocking the exit, looked into the car to see if anyone was inside the vehicle.  After knocking on the vehicle’s driver’s side window, he opened the door to look inside the vehicle and stepped away from the car.  At this time, it appeared from the video that Mr. Valentino was attacked from behind, at which time Mr. Valentino can be seen defending himself.  Mr. Valentino was then tackled by a male party.  According to Home Depot security, at the time Mr. Valentino was approaching the female’s car, people in the area were talking about an alleged active shooter.  Given the circumstances, it appears that Mr. Valentino was trying to determine if he could assist others to leave the area safely rather than steal the vehicle or anything inside, since an unoccupied vehicle was blocking the exit.

Neither the police nor the store security witnessed any zip ties on the female’s vehicle.

Hawaii County Police have no reports of any abducted women.  The fact-checking website snopes.com has reported that there have been reports of zip ties being placed on vehicles to indicate women targeted for abduction, but say the reports are false and have been circulating since 2018.