No Gimmies on This Golf Course

The burglary detectives quietly shadowed the suspicious truck as it made its way slowly through a Van Nuys commercial and residential area. The truck made a U-turn, cut its lights and finally pulled over. Two men in black rubber diving suits got out with a knapsack and disappeared into the darkness.

For the detectives, suspicion turned to excitement. It was 3 a.m. and they believed they had stumbled onto a caper in progress. The two dark figures came back with a full knapsack and dumped it in the back of the truck in the 5700 block of Valjean Avenue.

Backup officers were called. The truck was stopped. Flashlight beams dipped into the back. There was the booty, too much to even count: more than 1,000 wet, slightly used and allegedly stolen golf balls.

The scene of the crime: the pond along the fourth fairway at Van Nuys Golf Course.

“We were so disappointed,” Los Angeles Police Detective Richard Weaver said. “We thought we really had something a little more serious going on. It was just golf balls.”

Ryan Hefley, 24, of Pomona and Scott McQueen, 25, of La Mesa were arrested on suspicion of theft. A third man in the truck was questioned but released because he did not take part in the midnight swim.

The golf balls rightfully belong to the course, police said. Course starter Jack Parrett said employees periodically harvest the pond and sell the balls for as much as $1.25 each. “If you take several hundred, you are talking about a lot of money,” Parrett said.

Weaver said the suspects told investigators that they had earned extra money for five years by moonlight diving at golf courses throughout the West.

The balls were seized as evidence. Hefley and McQueen remained in jail late Thursday in lieu of $250 bail each.

“They are still sitting there in their wet suits,” Weaver said.