Bill Rehder’s job title is “bank robbery...

Bill Rehder’s job title is “bank robbery coordinator.”

Rehder, an FBI agent, is the man who confers the nicknames upon local stick-up artists that you hear or read about in the news: “Miss America Bandit,” “Chevy Chase Bandit,” “Pony-Tailed Bandit,” “Two Pairs of Glasses Bandit.”

“We’re working on maybe 35 or 40 cases at any one time,” he said, “and the average bandit will hit six or seven times before he’s caught. So we need some kind of an easy reference point for the agents. It got too complicated the way we did it in the old days, just calling him by the name of the agent working the case, ‘Joe Smith’s bandit,’ or something like that.”

Rehder, who was given robber-naming duties for the local region eight years ago, views bank robbery films and watches for distinctive characteristics. “We had one guy who wore two pairs of regular glasses at the same time,” Rehder said. “Another guy had (an obscene phrase) tattooed on his lower lip. He was kind of easy to spot.”

Still at large is “The Chevy Chase Bandit,” a well-dressed man who stumbled and fell for no apparent reason during one hold-up. However, “Miss America,” a cosmetologist who wore a wig, was snared the other day. Rehder said Miss America was an usual case.

“Most of the women (robbers) are quite a bit less than good-looking,” he said.

Bandits, who pull an average of more than three bank robberies per working day in Los Angeles County, seem to be busiest during the holiday season, Rehder said. But he isn’t sure why.

Could they be picking up money for gift shopping?

“It’s possible,” he said, “but most of their shopping is narcotics related.”

What would you do if you won $4.7 million in the lottery? One individual has done nothing--hasn’t even collected the prize.

And time is running out. If the ticket, purchased at a Hawthorne liquor store in June, isn’t turned in by the end of next Monday, the money will be placed in the lottery education fund.

Talk about expensive hand-me-downs.

Western Costume Co., a 76-year-old Hollywood institution with the world’s largest closetful of costumes, is up for sale. Its latest owner, Paramount Pictures Corp., is reportedly asking $3 million.

Aside from outfitting most of the big stars dating back to 1912, the company even dressed a real army. At the outset of World War II, Western Costume lent uniforms to the California National Guard, which was caught short.

Even for veteran KNX radio traffic reporter Bill Keene, it was an unusual bulletin.

“We’ve got a report of a skateboard on the Pomona Freeway near Hacienda (Boulevard),” Keene told his listeners Monday morning.

Considering the ever-worsening state of rush-hour traffic, Keene added, skateboarding might be the best way to commute.

As it turns out, the scooter was not a businessman, though.

Lyle Whitten, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, said a youth of about 10 was later spotted walking on the shoulder of the freeway in that area, his skateboard under his arm. When a CHP officer approached, Whitten said, the boy “bolted over the fence and escaped.”