The Suspect Never Stood a Chance

When the driver of a stolen car was stopped by an LAPD officer on the Westside, the suspect sped off, crashed, then tried to get away on foot. As the officer began his pursuit, he noticed an LAPD recruit class out taking a run. “You want us to get him?” asked one of the instructors, according to The Thin Blue Line police publication.

Affirmative.

The posse quickly netted the suspect.

GETTING AROUND: The Hollywood Reporter published an ad for an airline traveler’s item that may fall into the “don’t leave home without it” category. Probably wouldn’t interest the guy who listed his house in the Santa Clarita-area newspaper. He’s into cars (see accompanying).

MAP MAKER, MAP MAKER: Marty Fawcett of Redlands spotted evidence of a cartographic controversy involving Thomas Bros. maps and an anonymous resident of Forest Falls, a San Bernardino mountain community (see photo).

I called Thomas Bros. in Irvine (P. 859 G-3 of the Orange County directory) and asked about the matter.

It turns out the company did show a dead-end street as a through street three editions ago but has since corrected the problem. The professional-looking sign is still standing on Valley of the Falls Drive. Obviously the resident is concerned about those with old editions (like my ’94 copy).

In the 10 years he’s worked for Thomas Bros., Al Gastelum could remember only one other vigilante sign. When Thomas Bros. made a gaffe in Twentynine Palms, he said, “a guy spray-painted a sign on a big piece of wood.”

NAME GAME: There’s a Nero in charge of the Brea Fire Department.

“I’ve heard all of the jokes,” said Chief Alfred Nero.

Not that’s he’s any relation to the infamous Roman emperor.

“I’m Creole on my father’s side,” he said. “And the family name was originally Nereault.” But when his grandfather bought some land in Louisiana and told the clerk his name, the latter entered it into the official records as “Nero.”

The chief said that when he worked for the Oakland Fire Department, Bay Area columnist Herb Caen was fond of saying he hoped that this Nero was preventing fires, rather than starting them.

By the way, this Nero doesn’t play the fiddle. “When I was a child, I did play the violin,” he said, “but I switched to the cello.”

HERE’S TO BETTER DAYS: If you’re feeling left out of the major league baseball playoffs because of the absence of local teams, you can at least take some comfort in the fact that several Hall of Fame players attended high schools in Southern California. The lineup:

P--Bob Lemon (207-128 won-loss record), Wilson High, Long Beach

P--Don Drysdale (209-166), Van Nuys High

P--Walter Johnson (416-279), Fullerton High

2B--Jackie Robinson (.311 batting average), Muir High, Pasadena

SS--Arky Vaughan (.318), Fullerton High

3B--George Brett (.305), El Segundo High

OF--Ted Williams (.344), Hoover High, San Diego

OF--Robin Yount (.285), Taft High, L.A.

OF--Duke Snider (.295), Compton High

Famous high school classmate of a Hall of Famer: Drysdale’s contemporary, actor Robert Redford.

miscelLAny:

Guess who just put up a billboard across the street from the new Staples Center? None other than Raiders owner Al Davis, who still claims that his team has the rights to Los Angeles. Go Raiders! Go someplace else!