Their Emergencies Weren’t for 911

If you think you have the LAPD’s number, you may be only partially correct. Too many callers are clogging 911 with problems that are hardly life-threatening.

Lillian Brock, a senior police service rep, ticked off three recent inappropriate 911 calls:

* “A person called and said his parents had divorced and moved back to Asia and left him behind. He wanted to know what to do. The operator asked him how old he was. He said, ‘I’m 34.’

* “A woman said she had been robbed a couple of days earlier and the robbers threw her wig on the roof. She wanted the Fire Department to get it off.

* “A man called and said the manager had deliberately let a rat into his apartment.”

The third caller, by the way, wasn’t concerned only for his own welfare. Recalled Brock: “He said, ‘You need to see this rat. It’s really scared.’ ”

P.S.: The LAPD has launched a billboard campaign asking people to use its new toll-free number for non-emergencies. It’s (877) ASK-LAPD.

Not 911.

Ten-four?

SHOPPING GUIDE: While this column’s in an advice-giving mood, here are some reminders to comparison-shop when thinking of buying an auto (see accompanying).

As Joseph Gallin of Hawthorne pointed out, if you’re not careful, you could be stuck with payments of more than $400,000 a year on a Cadillac. Not necessary, even if it is a luxury car!

David Ianforno of Long Beach, for instance, found a car wash where they give away cars.

Reading the small print is important. Determine whether you’re supposed to pay so much money down or so much money up--Tama Lockwood of Lake View Terrace still isn’t sure in the case of a dealer offering to finance a car for $595.

And be leery of servicing claims. Jene Hamilton of Cherry Valley has her doubts about one dealer who said the transmission on its cars could go 25 millenniums between checkups.

WELCOME TO NO-SURF CITY: How ironic that Long Beach’s new minor league baseball team is called the Breakers.

The city’s beaches, in fact, have no waves because of extensive breakwaters that were constructed years ago to make the area safe for oil tankers. Some locals lately have begun a movement to have the walls dismantled.

Until they are, the ball team should be called the Breakwaters.

DON’T FEED THE POLITICIANS: Seal Beach’s Leisure World was in the news some weeks ago when residents complained of wild rabbits eating everything in sight.

Now, one complex in the retirement community has gone to war against another pest, with more success. It has banned all campaign signs.

miscelLAny:

Betsy Hooper-Rosebrook of Arcadia saw an Internet listing for a house that was described thus:

“Single Family Home . . . Walk-in closet ideal for in-laws.”

She commented: “How handy to have a place to store those troublesome in-laws!”

*

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.