County Sheriff’s Deputies Replay 911 Call to Solve a Made-for-TV Mystery

L.A. County sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call from a woman in a hotel room who said she’d been attacked by her boyfriend. Mention was made of a murder and a body in the alley. When deputies arrived, the caller said she was fine and that the incident had been minor. And she denied saying anything about a murder in the alley. The recording of the 911 call, containing those words, was replayed for her.

She listened intently, then realized there was a second voice on the recording. Deputies checked, and her story held up: The other voice was from a TV crime show that had been playing when she made the call.

Dog daze: I had a dog once that never obeyed. Now, after reading the ad spotted by Jeannine Lushbaugh of Temecula, I’m wondering if the poor mutt just didn’t speak my language (see accompanying).

Unreal estate: Hans Bohn of Downey came upon a listing for a house with a living room where one should walk carefully (see above).

Milestone? A theatrical ad with an unusual claim caught the eye of Craig Cryer of Redondo Beach (see accompanying). I was reminded of a blurb for the one-man show “Dame Edna� that proclaimed “Original Cast!�

But who’s counting: Charlotte Nolte of Van Nuys found a neighborhood restaurant where there wouldn’t seem to be a long line in the women’s room (see photo).

L.A.’s innocent (this time)! David Chan noticed that the NBC-TV Channel 4 news Web site used a Los Angeles dateline on the story headlined: “Mayor Punches Councilman at Her Last Meeting.�

While the fighter was actually the mayor of South Gate, Chan said: “People all over the country will be reading this and thinking that the mayor of Los Angeles did the punching. (We know that Jim Hahn is the mayor, but most Easterners won’t have a clue.) The first reference to South Gate doesn’t come until the eighth paragraph.�

That is an injustice, because unlike their counterparts in South Gate, L.A.’s mayor and council members have traditionally been a quiet (even sleepy) group -- those who show up for the sessions.

I had to go back to 1925 to find an account of a violent incident in the L.A. chamber.

One member, called a liar by another, struck him “back of the left ear,� The Times said. And the newspaper added this was believed to be the first time that one L.A. lawmaker had slugged another “at a public session.� (No records were available for saloon sessions.)

The sober truth: A friend of mine who was making arrangements to rent a banquet room in a posh Orange County hotel noticed that a luncheon of liquor salesmen was in progress. He was surprised to see that almost all of the attendees were drinking iced tea, not hard stuff. Then he stopped to reflect that this was, after all, a lunch on a workday, these were businesspeople and, well, times have changed. Still, the nonalcoholic event was ironic, he mentioned to a hotel employee.

The employee laughed and said the ice teas were all spiked with a schnapps that the company sells.

miscelLAny: “Knowing your penchant for bad puns,� wrote Dave Myers of Culver City, “I’m surprised you missed the obvious in Tuesday’s lead item� about the kitten that set off an alarm. “It’s clearly a case of ‘cat burglary,’ � Myers wrote, “which, of course, is a feline-y.�

I think I need some of that schnapps.

*

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 [email protected].