Thief makes a bad call in returning to scene of the crime

Well, I go away to San Luis Obispo for two weeks and what happens? A stupid criminal trickster evidently follows me up the coast. An L.A. woman, suspected of stealing the purse of a hair salon worker in that Central California town, was arrested after she returned to the store, the local Tribune reported. Seems she had forgotten her cellphone. When she realized that maybe she could do without the cellphone and raced for the exit, she was corralled by several onlookers and put on hold for the cops.

Moving down the coast ... : A man staggering close to traffic was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication at 3 a.m. by Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies, who found his explanation difficult to believe, the Goleta Valley Voice reported. He said he was “walking home from church.”

And back in SoCal: A guy who had managed to swipe an ATM machine seemed to have pulled off the perfect crime -- except for one thing, the Long Beach Beachcomber said. The darn thing wouldn’t quite fit in his van. When police spotted it hanging out of the back of the parked vehicle, they arrested him after correctly guessing that wasn’t his personal supply of cash.

False alarm of the month: Then there was the 911 call placed by a family after a person broke into their home. The Palisadian-Post said a helicopter was dispatched there, only for officers to learn that the intruder was actually a member of the family who -- locked out at 3 a.m. -- had broken in.

Christmas in July: I’m trying to think cool in this heat. And Paul Schowalter of Cerritos helped by telling me that while in Eldon, Iowa, he found the real location of the North Pole (see photo).

You think you’re good at parallel parking? David Wilkins of Lancaster says that he visited a museum in Montana that “may have the solution the L.A. parking problem” (see photo). Simply set each car on its front or back end. Wilkins also noticed that the museum has a bit of trouble “keeping the vertical sign vertical.”

Flushed with concern? In Orange, a store posted what appeared to be an eye-catching flood advisory in the bathroom (see photo).

Back to San Luis Obispo: While I was gone I taught at a 12-day journalism workshop for high school students at Cal Poly. I admit that I enjoy having my ego stoked by admiring young writers. Well, mostly admiring. One student described her first reaction at seeing me in class this way: “I found it odd that I would meet another man named Steve Harvey who was actually not the African American entertainer.” (Reminds me of the time years ago when I showed up to speak at a junior high school and heard a young Dodger fan complain to another, “I thought you said Steve Garvey was going to speak.”) Another student at Cal Poly sized me up this way: “When I saw him on the list of instructors I assumed that Steve Harvey was still living. I was gravely mistaken.” Just call me Mr. Charisma.

miscelLAny: I find items in all sorts of unlikely places, even a French movie. In “My Best Friend,” a Parisian who is a trivia buff mentions that Randy Gardner of San Diego set a world record for sleep deprivation as a high school student in 1965. Gardner stayed awake for 265 straight hours. Obviously he didn’t attend one of my journalism lectures during that period.

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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