Hughes Aircraft was encountering problems with dive-bombing...

Hughes Aircraft was encountering problems with dive-bombing pigeons at its plant in El Segundo, so the company developed an exotic defense system:

A series of fake owls stationed on ledges.

But the bogus predators were only marginally effective.

“We took a couple of the owls down because they (the pigeons) actually started roosting on them,” said Timothy Cozine, a Hughes facilities maintenance engineer, who coordinated the offensive.

Next, Hughes set out spikes (which “give them a feeling of sitting on a cactus,” Cozine said) as well as sticky repellent on the ledges and roofs.

Still some enemy bombings continued. Pigeons, he pointed out, are like humans--”they adjust.”

So, the company resorted to the ultimate weapon: A 2-foot balloon with two sets of eyes that appear to move. Made by a Chicago company, it’s called Terror Eyes.

Cozine says that since Terror Eyes was hung over the plant’s quad, the pigeons have stayed away.

Unclaimed treasures from safe deposit boxes throughout the state--including Mickey Mouse silverware, a tooth containing a gold filling, and a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth--will go on the block Monday at the Butterfield & Butterfield auction house on Sunset Boulevard.

Jewelry, silver bars and coin collections are also among the items that have lain dormant in accounts for five years. By law, they’re then turned over to the Division of Unclaimed Property in the state controller’s office, which must spend three years trying to notify the owners before selling the goods.

But the state is only acting as middleman. Proceeds from the sales are still held in perpetuity for the owner or his or her heirs.

The auctions are necessary, said Edd Fong, a spokesman for state Controller Gray Davis, because “we have limited space. We only have so much room in our vaults.”

Contents of state deposit boxes not deemed valuable are shredded.

“It’s fascinating what people keep in the boxes,” said Barbara Reagan, the assistant chief for unclaimed property. “We find things like socks, tambourines, pictures of Siamese twins--you name it. We’ve even found empty doughnut boxes.”

Insurance adjuster Greg Horbachevsky, attending a settlement conference in an office building in Brentwood, asked the secretary on one floor: “Do you need a key for the restroom?”

“Yes,” she answered. “But any key will open it.”

The door was locked. But, sure enough, when Horbachevsky used his car key, it opened. He cruised inside.

Perhaps you read that UCLA officials have admitted that they kept no records of where they sent some scrap from a nuclear reactor.

Has anyone checked USC?