Women Still Bowled Over by Police Raid

At the Granada Lanes bowling alley Thursday, Sandy Scholnick spotted a woman holding a stack of cash near the scorer’s table and told her, “I put in a 20.”

Then she cringed. The mere mention of money at the Granada Hills alley was enough to turn heads during the weekly games of the Dawnbreakers League.

“Hey, it’s only league fees,” Scholnick quickly assured other bowlers and observers. “I’m just paying my league fees.”

And so it went a week after Scholnick and four other league bowlers--including two grandmothers--were cited by the Los Angeles police vice squad for gambling, the evidence being the $15.50 in side pots that winners of the weekly bowling matches were to split.

But the cloud of disrepute that hung over Scholnick, 35, of Northridge; Pamela Waizenegger, 33, of Panorama City; Anne Barnett, 34, of Sepulveda, and Esther Martinez, 48, and Ollie Shores, 62, both of Chatsworth, did not last long.

Faced with the five housewives’ outrage over the undercover investigation that was prompted by an anonymous tip, police later took back the misdemeanor citations, gave back the money and added a warning: No more gambling.

So Thursday, when the women returned to the scene of the crime, there was no gambling and barely a mention of money--at least while most of the reporters and the television cameras were there.

Waizenegger acknowledged that she quietly passed winnings from a pre-bust side pot to another bowler but wagered nothing Thursday. She and the other women wondered if the league would ever be the same without money--even small amounts--riding on the matches, and they said they didn’t know how long they would continue competing solely for honor and trophies.

“It’s going to be boring,” said Scholnick, a member of the Bowl Weevils team.

The side pots, the bowlers claim, are a league tradition and they may decide to revive them.

“I’m going to miss it,” added Waizenegger, a member of the 10-for-10s team. “It kind of spiced things up. I think we’ll have to wait awhile, until things cool down, before we decide.”

But there is no telling when the heat will be off. The women still don’t know who the anonymous tipster was who turned them in. And though there seemed to be no indication that police were watching activities at the bowling alley Thursday, the media was. The bowling alley bust has been big news.

The self-proclaimed “notorious five” were greeted at the alley by newspaper and TV reporters. The nationally circulated Bowling Journal sent reporter Damon Cardwell, who agreed with the women’s contention that side pots are part of bowling leagues everywhere.

“It occurs in every league at every bowling alley in the country,” Cardwell said. “It is so commonplace it is almost part of the game.”

The women were interviewed, videotaped and photographed while bowling. Barnett, for one, saw her scores drop below her 150 average.

“It’s kind of distracting,” said Barnett, who added that she, Waizenegger and Scholnick are scheduled to tape an appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson today. “But we’re trying to have fun with it.”

On the official league score card Thursday, Scholnick scratched out the name Bowl Weevils--the team four of the cited women belong to--and penciled in a new name. From now on, the team is to be known as the Jailbirds.