Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : AT THE SCENE : Pack of Cigarettes Lures Barricaded Man

Amid the smell of tear gas and the occasional crack of .22-caliber rifle fire, Mary Ann Rolph, a neighbor across the street, declared it all to be “just routine.”

“You know how things become commonplace,” she said. “You see cops across the street and say, ‘Crazy Frankie is at it.’ ”

Anaheim police acknowledged that over the years they had been summoned regularly to the tract house in the 1800 block of Tedmar Avenue to deal with Frank Benjamin Kovaletz, who they said had a history of mental illness.

This time, police said, he had barricaded himself inside his parents’ house, where he lived, after allowing his mother to leave safely.

He had a rifle, about 300 rounds of ammunition and an apparent immunity to the 46 tear-gas canisters that were fired into the house by police. He returned the fire--about two dozen rifle shots, police estimated.

The standoff lasted through the night and ended when Kovaletz, 45, said he needed a smoke. Police threw a pack of cigarettes onto the walkway and Kovaletz came out to get them. He was arrested without any shots being fired.