Prowl

It was just after 9 a.m. when William Mims got busted in a Hancock Park driveway. Slowly, he set down the gushing hose, which lacked an automatic shut-off nozzle, stepped away from the gray BMW he was washing and put his hands up. "Hey, man, I confess. I confess. I was using just the hose" he told Kevin Cato, a Department of Water and Power water conservation officer. "I won't do it again." Since June 1, Cato and about a dozen other workers -- water cops, as some residents call them -- have been on the prowl in search of lawn-loving Angelenos who don't know or don't heed the city's tightened water restrictions.

Blue Willow china, the pattern that put the "blue plate special" on the menu at American diners, also gave rise to a host of home accessories and collectors who prowl flea markets and attend china swap meets looking for variations on what must be the most ubiquitous design ever made. It all started in the 18th Century with a transfer-printed, Chinese-inspired pattern with the now-familiar willow tree, footbridge, fleeing lovers and pagoda.

Reports of giant goldfish wreaking havoc in Lake Tahoe may have garnered fresh attention this week, but officials say the feral fish are just part of an army of invasive critters that they've been battling for years. Searching for invasive species that have colonized the resort-town lake, researchers Sudeep Chandra and Christine Ngai at the University of Nevada, Reno, nabbed the monstrous fish in 2011. One of them, part of a school of about 15 fish, stretched 14 inches and tipped the scales at 4.2 pounds -- dwarfing its typically finger-length, aquarium-bound counterparts.

The coyote perched atop the cinder-block wall 25 feet across the lawn from Candy Julian's screen door, dangling its paws and eyeing her family's two miniature schnauzers. "We started screaming. My son grabbed a shovel," the 45-year-old fitness instructor said of her run-in with a coyote one evening late last month in her Yorba Linda backyard. "I was screaming 'The dogs! The dogs!' " Her family chased off the coyote. But some neighbors haven't been so lucky, losing cats and small dogs and fearing for their children's safety.

The holidays are bringing an increasing number of thefts from residential mailboxes, apparently by people in search of cash and checks sent with Christmas cards and letters, police said Monday. Fullerton Police Chief Patrick McKinley recommends that mail be dropped off at U.S. Postal Service facilities, rather than left at home mailboxes for pickup by carriers or deposited in street-corner boxes.

Gene Wojciechowski criticized everything about Notre Dame ("Whoa, Let's Give Powlus More Time," Sept. 8). Its opening game, its coach, its quarterback, even the network broadcaster--all in the name of Julius Caesar's Ghost. He doesn't even know that Caesar's Ghost is just a stage role, played by a leprechaun, and created by Bill Shakespeare, the chap who threw the game-winning pass in the Irish's 1935 comeback upset of Ohio State. DICK FARRELL North Hills

A cat-snatching coyote in the Mountain Valley subdivision of Simi Valley may be running short on time. Spurred by the complaints of neighbors in the area near Cochran Street and Justin Avenue who say the coyote has killed at least eight cats in the past month, Patrick Musone is ready to act. An education officer with the Ventura County Animal Regulation Department, Musone will spend this week talking to residents and determining how to stop the...

The Carolina Panthers aren't very good, which is a problem, because owner Jerry Richardson spent almost $30 million on free agents in the off-season. The Panthers have lost to the Falcons and the Saints, so what happens when they play a real football team? An irate Richardson called a surprise team meeting and ripped into his players. "This is a must-win situation for us," linebacker Jeff Brady said of Sunday's game against Green Bay. "If you don't think it is, you're crazy."

Oracle Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Ellison told shareholders Monday that the business software maker remained on the prowl for other takeover prey as it continued to stalk rival PeopleSoft Inc. Responding to a question at Oracle's annual shareholders meeting, Ellison acknowledged mulling over a bid for struggling computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. before concluding it would be a bad idea to expand into the hardware business.