Readers Wonder Why a State Agency Is Keeping Its Identity Confidential

A while back I mentioned a building in Sacramento that seemed to be keeping its identity secret from passers-by (see photo). Well, three months later, the sign still hasn’t been fixed, Paul Schowalter tells me. Unable to stand the suspense, he went inside to find out the name of the shy institution. It’s Caltrans.

Life on the road: The crime log of the Aliso Viejo News reported a resident’s complaint about a driver “who pulls up every morning in a white Mustang, exits the vehicle, changes clothes, puts on deodorant, grooms himself and leaves.”

At least he uses deodorant.

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Unclear on the concept: “This looks like an ad for Vandals R Us,” Ken Pollock of Huntington Beach said of an ad he spotted (see accompanying).

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What kind of election is this? Dan Fink of L.A. noticed a ballot that didn’t seem to leave much of a choice (see accompanying).

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First, it was Cleo and Marc: Now that Jennifer Lopez has married singer Marc Anthony, Lee Harris asks, will she henceforth be known as J.Lo-patra? And will this Anthony let her appear at Caesar’s Palace?

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Stupid criminal tricks: In wire-tapped phone conversations, the alleged plotters of a bank robbery were heard discussing whether two of the gang should be disguised in orange or green construction vests, who should receive “driver pay” and who “participant pay” and, lastly, what happened to the bullets for the lone gun to be used?

“Just one bullet?” the alleged ringleader of the Buena Park heist said, according to FBI documents. “You told me you had the other bullets.”

“I threw them away,” a female confederate told him.

“How you going to stop someone with one bullet?” the ringleader asked.

The bank was robbed of more than $28,000, but eight people were arrested near the scene soon afterward. Two others were arrested in L.A. The gang’s lone bullet was never fired.

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Stupid criminal tricks (cont.): Reading about the suspects’ problems with bullets, I couldn’t help but think of one deputy who would have been a match for them. He, too, had just one bullet, even if he wasn’t allowed to put it in his gun.

The deputy? Barney Fife.

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miscelLAny: “A survey in the Netherlands shows one in three Dutch men think watching their national team on television at the Euro 2004 games in Portugal is more important than celebrating their wife’s birthday,” noted sportscaster Bret Lewis of KFWB-AM (980). “Can you imagine that kind of insensitivity? For a Lakers game, sure, but soccer?”

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Steve Harvey can be reached at steve.harvey@latimes.com.