Things I squirreled away that have finally popped up

Let’s file this one under “Unclear on the Concept.”

Last Wednesday the Arroyo Grande Police Department got a call around noon from an anonymous male who complained that he hadn’t received the “adult services” he’d paid for after answering an ad on Craigslist and showing up at a room at the Casa Grande Inn. He reported “possible prostitution activity” was afoot. (Sharp as a tack, that one.)

Apparently a woman and little boy had checked into the room and another young lady and a couple of guys then started frequenting the room. As it turned out, they were all from the San Diego area.

So what did the AGPD do? Here’s part of the news release: “The two female subjects were 19 and 20 years of age, while the male subjects were 23 and 24 years of age. The child was 2 years of age. One of the male subjects was currently out on bail for a ‘pimping’ charge in San Bernardino County. The vehicle associated with the subjects had a false registration tab affixed to the license plate but was registered to one of the adult males. One of the females closely resembled a photograph in the Craigslist advertisement but denied that she was the individual in the photograph. All the subjects gave conflicting statements and were evasive in responding to the officers’ questions.”

Now, let’s see: A guy out on bail for pimping; a false registration tag; a close ID of a hooker on Craigslist and conflicting and evasive answers to the police. Any cause to take these losers down to the station to straighten out their conflicting and evasive answers — especially in light of the fact these morons were dragging a toddler around with them? Can anyone spell C-h-i-l-d P-r-o-t-e-c-t-i-v-e S-e-r-v-i-c-e-s?

No way, Barney Fife. They were given a trespass notice and “advised not to return to the Casa Grande Inn.” One can almost hear them cackling as they drove on to their next Craigslist tryst in some other town outside San Berdoo: “OOOOH, a trespassing notice. They sure mean business on the Central Coast.”

And yet the thought of that little boy …

• • •

While on the police beat, this surely has to rank among one of the coldest cases involving a grand theft. A Morro Bay police log recently carried this entry: “Theft of a handgun that occurred sometime between 1992 and late January 2010.” Eighteen years?

• • •

Veering over to the political beat, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow corporations free rein in donating to campaigns, it might be timely to remember former Assemblyman Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh’s take on lobbyists: “If you can’t drink a lobbyist’s whiskey, take his money, sleep with his women and still vote against him in the morning, you don’t belong in politics.”

• • •

And while on the topic of political bedfellows, did you catch the New York Post’s headline dealing with John Edwards’ admission to fathering his illegitimate child?

“ ‘I’m the pop,’ says the weasel.” Classic.

• • •

As to government giving taxpayers the fuzzy end of the lollipop, a December USA Today analysis revealed that since 2007, the number of Department of Defense civilian executives earning more than $150,000 went from 1,868 to more than 10,000, and the Department of Transportation, which had only one person earning $170,000 in December 2007, now has 1,690.

Which gives weight to French economist/legislator Frederic Bastiat’s observation: “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it.”

And here I thought it was simply a case of greedheads snuffling up to the publicly funded trough …