The Writing’s on the Wall, but What Does It Mean?

Right off, I’ll tell you that I don’t have the answer to this urban mystery.

All I know is that “Chanel, Dad Loves U” is being spray-painted across a wide swath of San Diego.

The plaintive message has been spotted on the Adams Avenue bridge over Interstate 15, on a freeway divider in Mission Bay Park and at a number of construction sites in between, particularly downtown. “Loves” is sometimes done with a heart.

For weeks I put off pursuing this. I suspected that media hoaxers might be using a quirky name as a come-on.

Then I read a Valentine’s Day story about a couple with a 3-year-old daughter named Brandie. Chanel suddenly sounded more plausible.

My colleague, Nora Zamichow, saw a “Chanel” writer some weeks back around 9:30 p.m., putting his dark blue message on a construction fence around Symphony Towers. He was tall and lean and maybe wearing a sweatshirt.

The fence has since been removed. “Chanel Dad U” then appeared on the 7th Avenue pavement outside Symphony Hall, and on the newspaper boxes along B Street.

I asked construction workers about “Chanel.” Nothing. The same with the city’s anti-graffiti crews.

I called the Police Department. There are no missing persons named Chanel. Also, no cases at the coroner’s office.

I called agencies working with runaways and the parents who hunt for them. Again, no Chanel.

I could find no musical group or performer named Chanel. Nor any racehorse (Hey, wasn’t Jimmy Durante’s “Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash,” said to be a winning horse at 40 to 1?).

There are, of course, less checkable possibilities: A custody battle (one “Chanel” is outside the Family Court building), a beloved pet, a perfume aficionado, a love affair with role-playing, a contemporary “Kilroy Was Here,” and more.

Maybe it’s better that we not know.

Don’t Drink the Water

Combatants in the court fight between the city of San Diego and the Environmental Protection Agency will tour the city’s sewage stations today.

A lunch break is included at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. Yummy.

Club Comes to Arresting End

If this isn’t true, may I be struck by lightning.

After Channel 10 did a story recently on a South Bay financial gambit called the Chairman of the Board Club, the club operator began to feel the heat.

His pitch is that, for a mere $150, an investor can reap $27,000 as new investors are found. State and federal laws often take a dim view of such things, as the story pointed out.

So, at a recent gathering of would-be investors in Bonita, club operator Noble Robinson tried to calm the waters.

“You may have heard on television that this is illegal,” he said. “If it was illegal, the cops would be in the audience tonight. They would arrest me, take me to jail and close down the club.”

You guessed the rest.

The words were barely out of Robinson’s mouth when investigators from the district attorney’s office and an undercover cop from Chula Vista stood up in the audience and identified themselves.

They arrested Robinson, took him to jail and closed down the club. He’s charged with running a pyramid scheme, kind of a low-rent J. David & Co.