South Bay : One Tall Story That Officer Couldn’t Buy

It wasn’t the Mazda RX-7’s speed that caught the eye of Redondo Beach Police Officer Joseph Fonteno early Sunday. It was the hood ornament--the 9-foot light pole draped across the hood and roof of the white car on Pacific Coast Highway about 1 a.m.

Minutes earlier, the car’s driver allegedly had jumped a center divider at Sepulveda Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue, clipped a three-phase traffic signal from its concrete base and proceeded about seven miles to PCH and Ruby Street, where Fonteno pulled him over after a short chase. Fonteno reported that the driver, a 49-year-old Torrance man, appeared “dazed and confused.”

When the officer asked about the traffic signal, the driver replied: “It came with the car when I bought it.”

The motorist was booked on suspicion of “drunk driving, hit-and-run and excessive sarcasm,” said Police Capt. Jeff Cameron.