People and Events

“This is the first time I’ve seen this in 19 years,” said Pasadena police auto theft investigator Ted Saraf, referring to the man who stole a car--only to return it six days later washed, undamaged and with a tankful of gasoline.

The thief left a note of apology on the front seat of Ralph Branam’s 1984 Ford LTD, explaining that he was sorry but had been in a hurry to get to work because “my bos says if I were late again, he was gonna fire me.”

But, the note went on, “thanks to your car & your sacrifice, I made it on time. I hopes thad you will forgive me for borrowing your car. . . . I left everything in your car & take nothing out except oil witch I put in. I also washed it & put in as much gas as money I have.”

And, added the thief, “Everything is still in there & your stuff anemal is in the trunk.” (Sure enough, a stuffed tiger was safe in the trunk.) The note was signed “Anoymous.”

Branam, 66, a registered nurse, said his sister, Kathleen Van Dyke, also a nurse, was using the car on the morning of June 10 and had just stepped out of it when the man jumped in and sped away.

On June 16, Branam and his nephew spotted it parked in a no parking zone on California Boulevard--about 300 feet from where it was taken. “I thought I would never see that car again,” Branam said.

“Hey, we just shot one of your homeboys!” a youth in a red 1968 Mustang reportedly shouted at several young men standing on a South-Central Los Angeles street. Then the car took off.

The boastful suspects made it easy for uniformed traffic officer Richard Kellog. Apparently unnoticed by them, he was checking out an accident nearby. He merely jotted down the license number of the fleeing car and then called in.

Sure enough, several minutes earlier a red Mustang had pulled up in front of a house west of the USC campus and one of the four young occupants had fired four shots, killing 15-year-old Antonio Nunez and wounding two of his companions.

Southwest Division homicide Detective John Bunch said it did not take long to trace the car’s registered owner to an address in the area. There, the Mustang was found parked in the driveway with a sheet covering the back end. The officers lifted the sheet and found the license number they were seeking.

Bunch said a 16-year-old boy at the house admitted being the driver and gave officers the name of the alleged shooter, who was taken into custody early Monday. Two other youths were being sought.

The Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, expected to open in early November in Griffith Park, has laid in a stock of guns--the 174-piece Colt Industries firearms collection that includes weapons dating back to the 1830s.

Among the guns in the display acquired by the museum, said a spokeswoman, are engraved and gold-embellished frontier single-action models made for Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan.

Apparently Colt never made one for Jimmy Carter.

The folks of Avalon had their picture taken Sunday. Most of them, anyway.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the island city’s incorporation, the 2,496 residents were asked to gather on Crescent Avenue and sing “Happy Birthday” while photographers zeroed in from hillside and helicopter.

How many of them actually turned out is not certain. City Clerk Shirley Davy, who coordinated the celebration, said there might have been as many as 2,000. But who knows how many of them were ringers from the mainland?

On Sunday night at the Casino, Davy said, four bands took turns and “played all night long.” Plaques were given to former Avalon mayors. Of 14 still living, 11 were on hand. The lights were turned out and everyone sang, “Avalon.”

“It was just a marvelous party,” Davy said.

The artist who has plastered numerous on-ramp control signal boxes in Santa Monica and other Westside communities with posters showing a pleasant-faced stick figure saying “Ta-daa” has been identified as William Talman, 34, of Santa Monica.

Talman, who works for a company that makes herbal remedies, said he started postering last August when singer Michael Jackson’s “Bad” album was being advertised all over town. Talman went around pasting up prints of his stick figure with the words “Not Bad.”

Since then, he says, “I have been playing with it pretty much as a hobby . . . I see it as relatively harmless.”