Los Angeles Police Officer Marty Feinmark was...

Los Angeles Police Officer Marty Feinmark was driving through North Hollywood Tuesday when he saw a man hanging from the windshield wipers of a moving Trailways bus. A kicking and screaming man.

“My first thought was that they were filming a movie because we were near Universal Studios,” he said. “It seemed like a pretty good stunt. But there was no film crew.”

The officer raced toward the bus, which came to a halt, with its doors still shut. He met some unexpected obstacles.

As he crept forward on foot, a motorist tapped him on the shoulder and tried to report an unrelated accident. Then a lady started hammering on the outside of the bus door, apparently thinking it was a local.

The outdoor passenger eventually climbed down and told Feinmark that while he was making a phone call, the bus had pulled away, with his luggage on board.

The driver told police that the man appeared to be on drugs. In the end, officers decided no crime had been committed--after all, this is L.A.--and the bus was allowed to leave, minus the hanger-on and his bags.

“Oh, yeah, one other thing,” Feinmark said. “When the guy peeled himself off the wipers, we found a dead bird wedged in there. We wondered if the guy was a psycho. But the driver said, ‘No it’s been up there for three days. We never cleaned it off.’ ”

Now, back to the case of the Mad Manhole Cover Lifter.

The first break in the serial crime spree came Tuesday when Los Angeles police recovered about 40 missing lids at a downtown scrap-metal yard.

Responding to a tip, detectives found the covers while digging through loads of scrap metal at the Downtown Metal Center, according to manager Robert Kelman. The 40-pound covers had apparently been mixed in with large loads of scrap metal that were sold to the yard for anywhere from a penny to six cents a pound.

About 145 manhole covers remain at large, lifted from locations ranging from Hollywood to South-Central Los Angeles.

So, watch your step.

By the way, good police work doesn’t always go unnoticed. One spray painter has even decorated a wall with some pro-cops graffiti downtown.

The wall stands outside Los Angeles police headquarters at Parker Center.

Those who think that giving politicians pay raises is like throwing money down a manhole have an ally in L.A. City Councilman Nate Holden.

On Tuesday, Holden gave the city controller a check for $6,619. He said that’s the amount of his pay increase (after taxes) for the first six months following the passage of Proposition H, which he opposed.

This item isn’t about politicians. It just sounds that way.

Marionberry Pie, offered by Polly’s Pies in Santa Monica, is the Only in L.A. Menu Item of the Week. It’s not a Washington specialty. Marionberries, according to the menu, are grown in “the fertile valleys of northern Oregon.” We’ll reserve judgment until we see the videotape.

miscelLAny:

One of Wilshire Boulevard’s earliest residents--the saber-toothed tiger--is the state’s official fossil.