People and Events

Residents of an El Monte apartment covered their bathroom window with cardboard Wednesday, but that didn’t stop the curious from gathering outside to stare. Police finally had to put up barricades. “I’m sure they’ll come back again as soon as we leave,” Sgt. Chuck Fullington said.

The reason for the excitement in the 12200 block of Kerrwood Street was a cross-shaped glow that Sonny Romero, who lives there, first noticed on the window several nights ago when he stepped outside for a moment.

Fullington said it was “apparently created by a night light” in the bathroom.

Hundreds--some said more than 1,000--pilgrims or just plain sightseers were out front Tuesday night. Dozens remained during the daylight Wednesday.

“People believe in what they believe in,” Fullington said with a resigned tone. “That’s their right.”

It was trash day Wednesday in Bel-Air, not normally a remarkable time in that community. Except that a lot of carelessly discarded silver spoons may get hauled off with the cappuccino dregs.

It became a little more exciting than usual, however, when a Los Angeles city sanitation truck knocked the iron grill arch off the imposing entrance gate at Bel-Air Road and Sunset Boulevard.

Bel-Air Assn. manager Elaine Gerdau wasted no time getting repair estimates and learning that the wrought-iron beam was totaled--although the scrollwork can be saved and remounted.

The truck, she said, was a front-loader and the driver apparently forgot to lower its dumpster fork-lift contraption before trying to negotiate the entrance. (Clearance: 15 feet)

There was no immediate comment from the city.

Gerdau estimated that the gate is at least 50 years old. It was damaged once before, she said, when a motorist coming home late at night managed to ram one concrete pillar and then the other without getting through cleanly.

Forrest (Smokey) Varing of West Covina still hasn’t found a car to replace his 1966 Volkswagen Beetle, but he says he may get another VW.

“Baby,” as he called his late bug, had gone more than 900,000 miles, and seemed determined to turn 1 million, but earlier this week was crushed beyond repair when a beer truck fell on it in Riverside.

The VW’s roof crunched down on Varing, 67, but he escaped with cuts, scrapes and bruises because, he says, “I had a good shotgun rider--the Lord. He was in there someplace.” The driver of the truck, which overturned on a freeway interchange while carrying 22 1/2 tons of beer, also got off with only minor injuries.

Even the beer came through with only minimal damage.

Varig has an auto delivery business, driving to places such as Bakersfield, Palm Springs, Phoenix or San Diego to pick up cars and towing Baby on the return trips. “I’m what they call a freeway warrior,” he says.

He isn’t positive what model he will buy to replace the smashed VW--but “I don’t want a ragtop.”

Los Angeles police officers should henceforth have an easier time of it telling real jewels from fakes. On Wednesday, Chief Daryl F. Gates was handed a portable lab the size of a large briefcase that is supposed to do the job.

The $3,500 device was donated to the department by Best Products Co. in what Officer Bill Frio said was appreciation for the recovery by the cops last year of $450,000 worth of gems that were taken from the company and somehow ended up in the safe deposit box of a drug suspect.

The department was also given a meter that works only on diamonds. Frio agreed that if wives had access to it, “a lot of husbands would be in trouble.”