About Town
Utility workers scam
A Manhattan couple called police after three men allegedly gained access to their home by claiming to be utility workers, according to a Manhattan Beach neighborhood watch block captain report.
A man in a hard hat rang the doorbell of the couple’s home on the 1500 block of Nineteenth Street last Friday at noon and told the residents that while he was working on a neighboring house, a sewage pipe had broken and might be leaking into the couple’s yard. While two other men dressed as workers waited at the front of the house, the man asked the residents to take him to the backyard, insisting the wife come too, according to the report.
After the husband told the man to go through a side gate and he would meet him there, the man returned to the front entrance and told the wife he needed to go through the house because the gate would not open. The wife took the man through the house to the backyard, at which point the man asked the husband to turn on the faucet in the house.
When the husband asked the man why the regular water line had anything to do with the sewage, one of the other two men entered the house uninvited and the wife told him she was going to call the police.
The man in the hard hat told the couple he needed to talk to their supervisor and the three men quickly left in a car. The couple called the police, who did a neighborhood search but did not find the men. Upon further investigation,
they learned that no work was being done on the neighboring house at which the men claimed to be working.
Police are still investigating the incident, according to Manhattan Beach Police Detective Sgt. Brian Brown.
On Monday, John Wesley Ewell, 53, of Los Angeles was arrested for allegedly robbing and strangling a Hawthorne couple after posing as a utility worker to enter their home, according to authorities.
It is not known at this time if the Manhattan Beach and Hawthorne incidents are related.
DUI checkpoint
The Manhattan Beach Police Department will conduct a DUI checkpoint on Friday, Oct. 29 from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. The purpose of the checkpoint is to promote public safety, increase the awareness of the dangers associated with drinking and driving, and deter impaired drivers. MBPD has a zero tolerance policy on driving under the influence. Motorists caught driving with more than the legal blood alcohol content will be arrested.
The checkpoint operation is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Pumpkin Race and Pier-to-Pier Walk
Three-year-old Amelia Bodnar’s pumpkin princess race car took first place in Sunday’s World Famous Pumpkin Race at the Manhattan Beach Pier. Proud parents Jim and Karen of Manhattan Beach cheered her on. Photo by Andrea Ruse
Hermosa Beach residents Laird Fosse (left) and Ray Putt won third place in Sunday’s World Famous Pumpkin Car Race with their Dukes of Hazzard-inspired pumpkin. Photo by Andrea Ruse
More than 4,000 walkers participated in the Skechers Pier-to-Pier Friendship Walk last Sunday, raising more than $380,000 toward South Bay schools and The Friendship Circle, a non-profit organization for students with special needs. The money will be divided among Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Torrance and El Segundo education foundations and The Friendship Circle according to which organization participants selected their donations to go toward, a Skechers representative said.