"Small Town" Police Service

Just a few minutes ago (about 11:45 p.m.), a "Los Angeles School Police" car pulled up in front of my house, blocking the driveway and shining its spotlight into my front office window, where I sat, shades open, in front of my trusty computer. I had walked into another room to get a better look at what was going on when an officer knocked on my front door.

I turned on the front lights, looked out the peephole, and after trading a few words, opened the door. The officer, a 5' 5" Asian man perhaps in his early 30's, stood a few feet back from the doorway, with a small navy blue book in his hand.

"Someone on a bike flagged us down near Sawtelle and National to tell us that he found this checkbook."

I don't usually carry my checkbook around -- it's rarely necessary in these days of credit and debit cards being used for even the most mundane purchases, but I had need of it this evening. I tell the officer that the checkbook must have dropped from my jacket pocket while I was getting into my car while leaving Juniors Deli a half-an-hour earlier. I thanked the officer, exchanged smiles, shook hands. His partner remained in the car throughout.

So, evidently a bicyclist had gone out of his or her way to pick up my dropped checkbook with the apparent intention of returning it to me, before flagging down the officers, who then went out of their way to return to checkbook to me in the middle of the night.

While return of the checkbook may have been part of a possible crime investigation (was the owner of the checkbook mugged or the victim of other foul play?), it may have just been "being of service" as in "protect and serve." Yet, the service was unexpected and exceptional.

If I remain alert to them, interactions and "coincidences" occur every day to remind me that Los Angeles truly can be a very livable, "small" town.


(Photo - Friendly policeman in Reykjavik, Iceland, December 28, 2004.)