RESEDA : RV Donor Gives Explorers a Lift

The newest addition to the police vehicle fleet in the West Valley is a 26-foot motor home once used for transporting poodles.

Not that officers are planning any camping trips. Instead, Los Angeles police plan to sell the motor home and use the money to buy a van to transport Explorer Scouts who help police with law enforcement duties.

Sgt. Walt Kainz of the Los Angeles Police Department asked Ventura County resident Pati Lindley to donate the vehicle, which has about 20,000 miles on it. He plans to sell it so that the Explorers can buy a used van. A branch of the Boy Scouts with specialized troops of teen-age boys and girls, the Explorers help West Valley police efforts to patrol malls, control crowds and fingerprint children for identification purposes.

“We had been trying to come up with a van now for several months, but didn’t have any financing to work with,” Kainz said.

At the same time, Lindley, who said she once used the motor home to travel to dog shows, was wondering what to do with the large RV. Complete with queen-size bed and sofa, it was sitting in her yard on a platform.

“I was thinking about donating it, if I could possibly find somebody who really needed it,” she said.

The motor home languished until recently, when Kainz’s son visited Lindley to do some yard work. He told Kainz, and Kainz approached Lindley, a native of France who said she doesn’t know much about the Explorers but was happy to help the program.

Kainz said the Explorers’ activities in the West Valley have been limited because they must caravan to every event in private cars or even squad cars.