Park’s Neighbors Show Signs of Zero Tolerance for Would-Be Dumpers

I guess you could say it’s Long Beach’s Guerrilla Parks and Recreation Department, though right now it’s confined to that city’s Heartwell Park. Some neighbors were so aggravated about trash being dumped in the area that one resident posted homemade warning signs at the edges of the park.

Alas, the signs themselves were marred by a missing letter, as you can see in the snapshot by Sylvia Propes of the Beachcomber newspaper (see photo). And, of course, a misspelling is “punisable” by an appearance in this column.

Propes’ husband, Steve, who reported the story, says corrected signs have since been installed by the neighbors. And one of the residents told Propes that trash-dumping seems to have decreased.

Food for thought: Charles Rozner of Northridge noticed a case of a butcher who had gone postal (see photo).

It’s come to this: A label spotted by Bill Koepnick would seem to indicate that, in this litigious climate, some companies automatically expect to hear from customers’ lawyers (see above).

Driving away “oops!” (Cont.): Adding to our series about absent-minded motorists, George Vinovich of Camarillo writes: “When I was a teenager, I drove our Oldsmobile four miles to see a movie.” So far so good. Then, said Vinovich: “I took a streetcar home.”

Roof ornaments: A note from Emmie Miller of Dana Point has inspired me to ask you to consider a new category: longest distance driven with a creature on your roof (intentionally or not).

I made it about 20 feet with our stubborn cat atop our minivan one morning when I was too tired to wrestle her off. Meanwhile, Miller recalled that “we had a very tame pigeon that we suspected was an escaped pet.

“One morning, the bird flew into my garage and landed on the bar across the top of my Jeep. I tried to shoo it away, but it wouldn’t budge. Figuring it would fly off when I started the vehicle, I backed out of the garage.

“It stayed on top. I drove a good quarter of a mile with the pigeon. I could see it in the Jeep’s shadow on the street. It must have looked pretty strange to the neighbors.”

Wouldn’t my cat have loved to be up there with that bird ...

Misconnections: For all you cell phone haters, Howard Cohen recommends the movie “Crazy People,” specifically a scene involving star Dudley Moore caught in a traffic jam on a bridge. “He is so annoyed,” reports Cohen, “that he gets out of his car. While walking by the cars in front of him, he sees people using their cell phones and proceeds to stick his hand in the cars and toss the phones into the river below. And mind you, this was way before cell phone use was considered essential to life.” Way back in 1990.

MiscelLAny: As for my confession about driving with my cell phone on my roof, Gary Myers wrote, “It seems to me that the roof of the car is a great place for cell phones.”

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