OK, We’ll Charge ‘Em With Not Breaking and Not Entering

An L.A. County sheriff’s deputy responded to a burglary report in Paramount only to be told by the victim “that someone was using psychic powers to remove items from her home,” the city’s newsletter reported.

Which pretty much eliminated the possibility of finding any fingerprints.

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FROM STORKS TO . . . “I have read in your column of the numerous sightings of L.A.’s Freeway Chickens,” writes Jeff Ballam. “Yet I have never heard of the Freeway Pheasants. As I was driving westbound on the 134 near the Equestrian Center in Burbank, there was a male ring-necked pheasant standing proudly on the shoulder of the freeway. I saw no others with him, so I don’t know if he was a bachelor or if the others were too afraid to approach the roadway.”

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CIVIC BOOKENDS: I mentioned the sign that proclaims “Barstow, Calif., 2,554 Mi.” on the eastern end of Interstate 40 in Wilmington, N.C., and Kevin Smith wrote to remind me: “As a river rat who drives I-40 a lot, I can tell you there is a sign on the California end as well” (see photos).

And thanks, also, to the 2,554 readers who corrected me for saying the highway was U.S. 40.

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MELROSE ON WILSHIRE: After my report of a passerby snatching a campaign poster from mayoral candidate “Melrose” Larry Green on Sunset Boulevard, Albert C. Cardenas wrote: “Apparently Melrose Larry has learned a lesson. He was campaigning on the 720 (Wilshire Boulevard) bus last evening, presumably so he could easily nab anyone taking a poster from him.”

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JUGGLING ACT: At a softball game in Modjeska Park in Anaheim, a spectator was talking on a cellular phone when a foul ball came his way. He stopped talking for a moment to catch the ball with his free hand. Further proof that nothing can make people put their cellular phones away.

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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 Street, L.A. 90053, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com