A Tip for Waiters: Look After Your Customers Before They Dine and Dash

The Seal Beach Sun reports that police received a call from a worried resident who said three males “wearing aprons had been running around his home with flashlights for the past 10 minutes.”

The intruders turned out to be waiters from a local restaurant “looking for two juveniles who had failed to pay their bill.”

I guess that’s one way to get waiters to move quickly.

Guide to Adventurous Dining: Today’s items (see photos) include a dental duel (submitted by David Terlinden of Long Beach) and a unique take-out service at a Gardena eatery (Don Garabedian of Harbor City).

On the road: Brock Best of Orange found a shop in Midvale, Utah, that discourages customer complaints (see photo).

Val talk: Commenting on the state Legislature’s plan to redraw political boundaries, state Sen. William Knight (R-Hesperia) told the San Bernardino Sun, “I don’t see my representation changing at all. I don’t have to get acquainted with the people in San Fernando Valley.”

Is that the way Mayor Hahn feels, too?

Squashed beetle: The Daily Pilot reports that a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle that is said to have traveled more than 500,000 miles was put out of action the other day when it was rear-ended in Westchester. Owner Alan Beek of Balboa Island said he plans to spend about $6,000 to have it repaired--three times what it cost new.

Commuter champ: Beek’s Beetle did not make the Guinness Book of World Records, in case you’re wondering. A few years ago, Guinness listed a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle owned by Albert Klein of Pasadena as the all-time mileage record-holder. The Bug reportedly traveled more than 1.4 million miles.

At least he wasn’t driving at the time: The Los Alamitos News-Enterprise’s police log listed a complaint about a 40ish man who was “acting strangely, putting his wallet to his ear like a cell phone.”

This is not a joke: Sundays at the Hooters restaurant in Long Beach are “Kids Eat Free” days.

Fleshy software: Asked to recall odd moments in his career, writer Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated told CNN about the time he walked into an L.A. hotel room in 1988 and found a basketball player attempting to insert a bare foot into McCallum’s computer.

McCallum said he asked the player, Darren Daye of the Boston Celtics: “What are you doing with your foot in my computer?”

Daye asked the writer what his name was. When McCallum told him, Daye explained that he had asked for a key to the room of McHale--teammate Kevin McHale.

This was 1988, remember, when people weren’t as familiar with computers.

Daye told McCallum that McHale had invited him to try out a “foot sensory machine” in his room.

miscelLAny: One of the shoreline mansions at Lake Arrowhead is owned by the Sparkletts family.

I don’t think the Sparkletts people drink Arrowhead water, though.