Worried Police Say It With a Gift: Safety Comes First

Many Huntington Beach police officers consider Ella Christensen their second mama and second grandma to their children.

Like any family, they became increasingly worried that the 71-year-old owner of Neptune’s Locker and Captain’s Galley, two small cafes on the Huntington Beach pier, was going to fall and hurt herself if she continued to climb up on the already wobbly bar stools to change the channel on her overhead television set.

It was a precarious feat. She had suffered from arthritis for years, and the officers feared she would take a bad tumble.

“She’s a sweet little old lady and she’s getting at that age that if she fell, she might not be able to be there anymore,” said patrolman Gil Coerper.

Big Red Bow Wrap

So Coerper collected $400 from about 200 other members of the Huntington Beach Police Officers Assn. for a remote control color television. Officers wrapped it with a big red bow and surprised her with it as a combined Christmas and birthday present.

They put it on one of her video game tables, under her other television set, crowded inside the tiny but cozy Neptune’s Locker, then waited for her to return from her afternoon rest.

“They told me they had something for me before Christmas, but I didn’t expect it,” she said. “I guess they thought I needed to be taken care of.”

Now all she only has to do is point the remote mechanism at the TV to turn the channels or turn it on or off.

The association also gave her a swivel bar stool because the backless bar stools she usually sat on weren’t helping her health any, they figured.

“They’ve been very good to me,” she said. “They’re always looking out for me.”

And she has been looking out for them, said Officer Jim Wehr, who has known Christensen for the 17 years he has been on the force.

“When we have undercover officers on the pier, she gives them a place to rest and gives them food. She attends our dances, gives money to our fund-raisers and has been that way for years and years,” he said. “She’s not a rich woman.”

‘Like One Big Family’

The television and barstool weren’t the first presents the officers gave her. Several years ago, they and local firefighters gave her a round trip to Wyoming so she could visit some of her many grandchildren.

“We’re just like one big family,” she said.

As the unofficial proprietress of the pier for the past 34 years, Christensen said she has been around longer than some of the officers have been alive.

“Some of the fellows worked for me before they went into police work . . . of course they had to be 21,” she said.

She has come to know their wives and their children. “Every time there’s a new baby, they bring them in to meet me.”