Out of their gourds: Counting down the 909’s weird news of 2019 – Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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In these rapidly changing times, it’s important to keep traditions alive. For example, my countdown of the 909’s top strange news of the preceding year, which I’ve been compiling for 21 years. Hey, my countdown can now drink legally! But you can get a buzz from just looking back in amusement, and possibly horror, at the best of the weirdest of 2019.
A 56-year-old burglary suspect was found in May living outdoors in what was described as an elaborate treehouse in the well-appointed Ganesha Hills neighborhood of Pomona. Set into a wooded hillside, the treehouse was equipped with lighting, a barbecue, fire pit, saxophone and cuckoo clock. A police helicopter and K-9 found the man and ordered him down from his tree fort. The man did so despite officers not knowing the secret password.
In San Bernardino, a City Council majority whacked the pay of two elected officials, the city clerk and city attorney, in June to free up $150,000 to spend on lobbyists. The pair took the city to court in August and got their pay restored. A councilman who had dissented in the vote said, “In my view, it was a foolish attempt to save some money and it probably ended up costing us money.”
A water main broke in Chino Hills in March, sending a river of water down Rancho Hills Drive and buckling the pavement. The images were dramatic enough to make TV news around L.A. As the Chino Champion pointed out, the incident fell during Fix a Leak Week (March 18-24), established as a reminder to residents to check their irrigation systems and household fixtures.
A time capsule was buried as part of the Pomona Civic Center dedication in 1969, with the intention of opening it 19 years later for the city’s centennial. But nearly everyone forgot until May, when a city crew dug up the capsule at the urging of history buffs. Pomona was a mere 31 years late. Do public servants, like the public, have a short memory? Maybe what City Hall needs is fewer time capsules and more Gingko Biloba capsules.
In October, a jokester planted a banner with a portrait of Penny Marshall in her Laverne DeFazio sweater next to a La Verne city limits sign. Laverne, meet La Verne. The city allowed the banner to remain in a grassy strip along busy Foothill Boulevard for more than a week. Those were happy days.
In March, a suspected gang member with a firearm ran from police in Pomona, hopping fences and skulking in backyards. He was discovered hiding inside a refrigerator. Please tell me officers shouted “Freeze!”, then high-fived each other.
An Ontario man planted an ordinary pumpkin seed in the spring and by October had nurtured the seed into a 965-pound behemoth. “It can literally grow 30 pounds overnight,” homeowner Mike Prager said. Now that’s a great pumpkin.
In September, a shirtless, barefoot 24-year-old man who had been detained on suspicion of burglary was taken to an interview room at the Chino Hills sheriff’s station. Deputies snapped a surveillance photo that showed him seated and yawning. From there, he made his daring escape — by walking out. The nearly naked man “ultimately exited through the front lobby,” a captain later admitted. Proving the long arm of the law, bare or clothed, will always find you, police took him into custody three days later in neighboring Chino.
The down escalator in Ontario International Airport’s Terminal 4 stayed motionless for six months, leading to barricades, caution signs and an unofficial Twitter account, @ONTescalator, that tweeted as if it were a sentient being. “A 6.6 earthquake couldn’t even take me down. *sigh*,” it tweeted after a temblor. A few days after I wrote in August about the broken escalator, it was repaired. I think this item about the down escalator is ending on an up note.
And perhaps the strangest local news of 2019?
A grown adult did not want to attend the LA County Fair in Pomona with his parents. But rather than beg off, or go along and run the risk of enjoying himself, the 22-year-old Sylmar man is accused of emailing the fair to say someone was planning a mass shooting, in hopes media coverage would persuade his parents to stay home. “Kind of a crazy thing,” the police chief said after the arrest. Booked into Pomona City Jail, the man, appropriately enough, had to go to Pomona after all. But he didn’t get any cotton candy.
David Allen, who often goes to Pomona with a book, writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, visit insidesocal.com/davidallen, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.
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