Good Neighbors Hold the Key to Police Sting That Wouldn’t Spring

Trying to catch a car thief, undercover deputies from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department parked a car as bait on a Paramount street with the keys in the ignition.

Whereupon a neighbor removed them and left a note on the car for the owner, reports the Paramount publication City Talk.

So deputies moved the car and tried again. This time, a good Samaritan took out the keys with the intention of notifying the returning driver.

The deputies moved the car again. At last, they saw a man take the keys and walk away--to his nearby front porch, where he sat down to wait for the owner to return.

A no-strike day for the officers.

SNEAKY SENIORS ALERT: The idea of seniors being asked to show their I.D.s before receiving discounts brought a note from Casey Rocke.

“People over 45 are constantly trying to cheat the system,” declared Rocke, a theater ticket clerk. “Our senior discount age is 62, and half the people I card aren’t 62 or older.”

Rocke acknowledged that sometimes ticket-buyers have merely assumed that 55 was the cutoff. (Which raises the question: Why does the cheapskate management offer such a limited discount?)

But, Rocke said, some seniors run scams such as this: “A couple will come to buy tickets and one [who is actually a senior] will buy the tickets, while the other [not yet a senior] will purposely hide out of view of the box office to avoid being carded.”

Just when my faith in humanity had been restored by the citizens of Paramount.

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FAMILIAR INITIALS: Barbara Ellis of Pasadena sent along a newsletter from the Lewisham Assn. of People with Disabilities in England, which seeks to distinguish itself from another LAPD (see accompanying).

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UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT: A “Dinner Special” coupon that turned out to be not so special caught the eye of Al Tripodi of Dana Point (see accompanying).

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.