Can We Blame Sun Poisoning for Some of 2005’s Wacky Items?
Welcome! You’ve logged on to Windows 2005, a review of the offbeat in Only L.A. this year:
BYO what? An L.A. street gang sent out party fliers instructing guests to “bring your own high” (drugs). Officers showed up, uninvited, and arrested 14 people on drug, gun and other charges.
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Bad timing award: A few days after Hurricane Katrina struck, CBS inadvertently showed a rerun of “The Price Is Right” that offered a grand prize of a round-trip flight “from Los Angeles to New Orleans for a six-night stay at the Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel, within walking distance to the French Quarter.”
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Worst escape route: Dianne Bradfield of Long Beach chanced upon a stolen SUV whose driver ignored a sign by a lake in that city (see photo). The thief abandoned the vehicle.
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Motorized shopping cart? The skyrocketing gasoline prices took a toll on everyone, as a shot by Raymond Kissack of Santa Monica illustrated (see photo).
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Unusual to-go order: A security camera filmed a burglar breaking into a San Clemente pizza parlor, donning an employee’s shirt and preparing a pepperoni pizza. Alas, the hungry thief was scared off by an arriving worker and left the pizza in the oven. But he did carry off some dough -- about $3,000.
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Speaking of baking: When unsuccessful San Diego mayoral candidate Donna Frye was asked to explain all the city’s woes, she responded: “Sometimes I say it’s sun poisoning.”
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Drive-in mollusks? In San Gabriel, Howard Ran found an insurance company that, I suppose, could claim it really shells out (see photo).
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Next time try MapQuest: A drug dealer in Long Beach who got lost trying to make a delivery was arrested after flagging down a cop for directions. The officer noticed the shipment in plain view.
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Bad karma/carma: When a stretch of Laurel Canyon Boulevard was shut down in March because of landslide fears, one frustrated motorist complained to a radio reporter that the roadblock was preventing her from going to her workout. “I need to exercise,” she declared. “This is L.A.”
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Moonshine serenade: A 22-year-old street guitarist who ignored orders to stop strumming his rock tunes alongside a panicky police horse was arrested by officers in Isla Vista for public intoxication and harassment of the creature.
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Either that or change the name to Cementdale: A temporary ban on the practice of paving over lawns to create parking spaces was approved by the City Council of, uh, Lawndale.
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Wrong question: After the robbery of a Westside Subway eatery was captured on surveillance video, L.A. police officers noticed a man who resembled the gunman. They detained him, at which point he asked, “Is this about the Subway?” He then confessed.
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A Sig-Alert for the ages: In the supernatural thriller “Constantine,” set in L.A., Hell was depicted -- no joke -- as a mass of flamed-out cars on the Hollywood Freeway.
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Celebrating a milestone: After California’s roster of lawyers topped the 200,000 mark, the L.A. Daily Journal asked: “Why do California and New York have the most lawyers while New Jersey has the most toxic waste dumps? Answer: New Jersey got to choose.
