A hair-raising tale from the annals of real work by LAPD officers

The new book “Hit the Streets!” is an entertaining compilation of true-life police tales by Steven Rose, a retired L.A. cop. Rose takes the reader along on several unusual adventures, such as a late-night search of a deserted building near LAX where a would-be burglar was believed to be hiding.

“Just about the time we were about to give up and call off the search,” Rose wrote, “I spotted some blond strands of hair sticking out from under a large pile of carpets in a dark corner.” The suspect was told to climb out. No response.

Finally, Rose took things into his own hands, and feet, and began walking on the carpets. The pile began to undulate and a muffled voice said, “Get off! Get off! I give up!” Out stepped the suspect, a chap with long, straggly blond hair.

He might have eluded the cops if it hadn’t been for Rose’s sharp eye.

As another officer put it, “I guess this is just a case of being out by a hair.”

“Hit the Streets” (cont.): One of the first things Rose learned as a cop was that “there was more to police work than making arrests and throwing bad people in jail.” He tells of a woman who was constantly phoning police about evil spirits flying in her bathroom. One officer entered the room by himself whereupon, Rose wrote, “a lot of banging and noise” could be heard.

The officer emerged to say he had banished the spirits and advised the woman to keep her bathroom windows closed so they couldn’t return.

Police seldom heard from her after the exorcism.

I kid you not: I guess my eyes didn’t move past the “Flakewood” mention in the ad I printed the other day (see accompanying). What I missed was the unusual item for sale, as Kay Dangaard, Kathryn Auld, Linda Weinberger, and Charles Brill pointed out to me (see accompanying).

Civic Rodney Dangerfields (cont.): Lakewood shouldn’t feel that it was alone in being disrespected. Over the years, column readers have sent me numerous colorful misspellings of their cities, especially in postal addresses (see accompanying).

Pre-Valentine’s Day story: A passenger on the Metro Blue Line was telling his seat-mate how a would-be girlfriend responded to his wooing attempts: “She said, ‘You’re saying things I’ve never heard. I work for a car dealership and I thought I’d heard everything.’ ”

miscelLAny: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the former Orange County State College (now known as Cal State Fullerton). Like actors, many local colleges and universities have changed their original names, including St. Vincent’s College (now Loyola Marymount), Throop University (now Caltech), California State Normal School (now UCLA) and Claremont Men’s College (now Claremont McKenna).

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, 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.