Location, Location, Location

OK, it’s not the Bermuda Triangle. But something woo-woo is afoot at Clark Drive on the Beverly Hills-L.A. border. Call it Doppelganger Lane. On Clark Drive, street numbers keep recurring, thanks to the wandering boundary between Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which loops back and forth at Robertson Boulevard, wreaking havoc with address numbers on nearby streets.

For patent attorney Norton Townsley, whose Beverly Hills home shares an address with two other locations nearby, imitation is anything but flattery. Townsley lives at 300 S. Clark Drive, not to be confused with the other 300 S. Clark Drive, a condo complex just over the line in the city of Los Angeles; or 300 N. Clark Drive, a.k.a.Temple Emanuel, in Beverly Hills.

Wags might savor the irony of a patent attorney living at an address duplicated by two others, but Townsley isn’t going there. “I specialize in intellectual property, and I’m not sure how that relates.”

After seven years of pizza and Chinese food misdeliveries, Townsley is amused but worried. One night police officers mistakenly showed up at his home on an emergency call. “That’s scary. Suppose somebody has a heart attack,” says Townsley, who says he has written to the mayors of L.A. and Beverly Hills about the problem. “I can imagine an ambulance going to the wrong address. I imagine there are other duplicate addresses.” Indeed, he says he has spotted a sign on a neighboring home reading: “This is not the Four Seasons Hotel.”

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When Addresses Collide:

SIGN FOR DELIVERY

“On Valentine’s Day my wife will receive several bouquets,” Townsley says. This year, though, the couple were out of town. “When we came back on Sunday there was a vase of roses sitting there. We called the florist and they said to keep them.”

Several times each Christmas, the Townsleys receive deliveries from FedEx or UPS. “My wife, Linda, called one of the addressees, [and] the person said, ‘Thank you very much. Oh, you called me last year.’ ”

NOT FOR RENT

Townsley says: “Workmen remodeling for us said some people wandered in and said, ‘This looks very nice for $1,300 a month.’ ”

“Frequently, potential renters wander onto our porch thinking that they are going to view the penthouse.”

“Limousines have shown up at 5 in the morning to take me to the airport.”

“In January someone came and said, ‘We’re here to install your cable.’ ”

“Sometimes people want to know where the garage sale is.”

GO TO TEMPLE

“You’ll see people driving by and they’re supposed to be going to Temple Emanuel for a bar mitzvah,” Townsley says. Jackie Sharpe, a member of Temple Emanuel’s executive board, says she’s never encountered the 300 Clark Drive phenomenon.

“It doesn’t happen here,” Sharpe says. “We’re a sanctuary with large arches in front and an early childhood center with a big sign over the gate. We have security at the front door. It would be hard to mistake it for anything but a temple.”