A Dip in the Sea May Chase Away One’s Cares, but It Doesn’t Deter Police

Stupid criminal tricks: A suspected robber being chased by police in Manhattan Beach chose a questionable escape route. He jumped into the ocean.

Confronted by three officers, he refused to come out. When they waded in to get him, he elected not to try to swim to Catalina. Guess he figured he was already in over his head.

Just say neigh: Hope you haven’t forgotten that this is Rideshare Week. Just to get you motorists in the mood to try something different, I offer the following (see accompanying):

* A newspaper headline seen by Anna Inda of Whittier in South Carolina, where cars are apparently being de-emphasized.

* A suggestion for an alternate form of transportation, snapped by Jackson Sleet.

* A parking area for four-footed vehicles at a restaurant in the Palos Verdes area (please, no jokes linking the parking sign with the type of meat served there).

* And, finally, a notice observed a while back by Bill Kennedy of West Covina. I believe it was supposed to refer to horseback riding, not wedding processions.

A robust saltwater bouquet: Vanda Krefft notes that “travel is a learning experience. There I was in Reims, France, champagne capital of the world, and I saw a bottle of Santa Monica wine.”

It was a “Classic White,” year 1998, and, yes, it was from Santa Monica, Calif.

Added Krefft: “I’ve lived in Santa Monica for many years and never knew we had vineyards here.”

I didn’t either. But I assume that any wine from the Westside would be low calorie, low sodium, and made from organically grown, free-range grapes.

He didn’t get the last laugh, though: A would-be thief with a sense of humor was unable to open a safe at a San Diego area aerospace firm, reports Union-Tribune columnist Diane Bell. So before leaving, he wrote “Good safe” on a piece of paper and placed it on the safe. Detectives dusted the note for fingerprints, got a hit in their records, then arrested him.

miscelLAny: Dave Smith was chatting on the phone with a fellow when the latter got another call. “Can you hold a sec?” he asked Smith, then clicked off without waiting for an answer. I guess we’ve all had that experience. The only difference was that when the fellow got the call he was speaking on Smith’s sports talk show on KXTA-AM (1150). Smith didn’t wait for him to come back on the line.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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.