A Hawai'i Kai family is relieved that a bench they donated to a city beach park in memory of their late son has been returned after being stolen March 22.

"I couldn't believe that they found the bench," said Joyce Cassen Levey, whose son Daniel Levey died in a hiking accident in 2003. "I have no ill will for the people who took the bench."

Park workers found the bench in the parking lot of Waimanalo Beach Park early yesterday morning, city Parks Director Lester Chang said. The Advertiser on Thursday had published a story about the theft from its spot — bolted on a concrete pad — at Sandy Beach Park.

"The bench was left at the park purposefully for us to find it," Chang said. "I'm guessing someone wanted to return it. The condition of the bench is good."

The city will reinstall the bench at Sandy Beach Park.

The bench was installed Feb. 20 after the Levey family donated it to the city in memory of their 19-year-old son, Daniel, who died in a fall from Mau'umae Trail above Maunalani Heights in 2003.

Sandy Beach was a favorite spot for the Levey family, who would go to the beach at sunrise from their home in Hawai'i Kai and watch the crabs scurrying along the beach, digging their holes at the edge of the surf. They called it Crab Beach, Cassen Levey said.

Levey's bench was bolted onto a concrete pad between two other benches, facing the ocean with a brass plaque in Daniel's memory affixed to it, park officials said. The family will buy a new plaque to replace the one lost during the theft.

Since this was the first donated bench to be stolen, Chang said, he doesn't think that any changes in installation will be necessary. There's no way to permanently install the bench without welding it in place.

"We have to balance what is practical and, yet, not expose these benches to vandals," Chang said. "We'll be watching. It's just like all the shower heads that get stolen.

"Whoever took it realized that they'd get caught. These benches are unique. Not something you'd pick up at Home Depot. It would have drawn attention. I believe they wanted us to find it and return it."