People and Events

A stolen steamroller led sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers on a low-speed chase through East Los Angeles early Wednesday before they managed to stop it and capture the driver, whom they suspected of being drunk.

East Los Angeles CHP Officer Louis Gutierrez said a couple of parked cars were damaged by the fleeing machine during the 5 m.p.h. pursuit that began about 1:30 a.m. when two deputies spotted it rolling along the pavement at Folsom and Blanchard streets.

As CHP officers joined the procession, Gutierrez said, the steamroller rumbled a couple of miles along Blanchard, and Miller and Brannick avenues, back onto Folsom and then onto Marianna Avenue. Finally, at Marianna and Floral Drive, CHP Officers Fred Langley and Mike Morgan jumped up on the machine and killed the engine.

Gutierrez said the driver, Rudolph Soria, 28, pushed them off and started to run, but they quickly overtook him. Soria fell and hurt his head in the struggle, the officers reported.

Soria was booked at the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center on suspicion of stealing a vehicle, resisting arrest, drunk driving and hit-and-run.

The steamroller had been stolen from a nearby construction site. Langley said Soria told him that he took it because he was tired of walking.

An Inglewood computer technician had no intention of taking part in the Wayne Gretzky look-alike contest at a Woodland Hills hotel, even though he insisted that a lot of people mistake him for the ice hockey star.

Kevin Davidson said he went to the Warner Center Marriott on Tuesday evening to meet a friend and that they stepped into the lounge for a drink--about the time of the competition to find doubles for Gretzky and his recent bride, actress Janet Jones.

On the spur of the moment, Davidson entered. While other contestants displayed their skill at swinging imaginary hockey sticks, Davidson pretended to throw a basketball through a hoop, thereby bringing into question his understanding of the game.

Davidson is tall and black.

He won.

The winner of the Janet Jones contest was Barbara Golanski, a hotel guest from Milwaukee. Each got $5 million in Monopoly money and $100 in cash.

As reported Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Board of Zoning Appeals went through an emotional hearing before finally allowing a Hollywood hospice for AIDS patients to keep operating despite protests by neighbors that it should not be in an area of single-family homes.

Board member Ilene Olansky wept as a hospice volunteer described dying AIDS patients.

Olansky, as she virtually always does, brought a tin of homemade cookies to the regular board session. But for the first time in the memory of board secretary Terry Speth, no one even opened it.

This time it just didn’t seem right.

A soft drink company got some pretty creative suggestions when it asked children to submit fantasy designs for play parks the company intends to build in Torrance and Pacoima as well as Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

There were nearly 8,000 entries, said Pepsi Cola’s Leslie Schneider, and the kids “went wild with water in general.” Many drawings included proposals for water slides, boats and submarine rides.

Not a few of the youthful designers envisioned “Raging Waters, Magic Mountain and Disneyland combined,” Schneider said, “with space ships, rockets and flying saucers--not just a simple jungle gym and slide.”

One dreamer included a booth offering free Michael Jackson concert tickets.

The company plans to spend $50,000 each on five play parks. Architects will do what they can to incorporate the ideas.

Ten winners per park will be announced today.