A 44-year-old Big Island man has been charged with the burglary of a Waimea restaurant after he allegedly threatened a cleaning crew and crashed his car while attempting to flee.

Valentine Joseph Gines of Waimea was charged Friday with second-degree burglary, third-degree criminal property damage, second-degree robbery, inattention to driving and false reporting.

The false reporting offense was for reporting that his car had been stolen. His bail was set at $38,000.

South Kohala patrol officers responded to a report at 2:12 a.m. Thursday and learned that a cleaning crew had encountered a man in a storage room at a restaurant on Opelo Road in Waimea. The man verbally threatened the crew, tried to flee in a sedan, crashed the car into a tree and ran away. He was arrested later that day.