DALE MARIE GOLDEN always gets her man. No, this isn’t a tale of love in the hills — it’s a crime story. Our heroine is a senior executive at Montclair’s Wells Fargo Bank and her motto is none other than “not on my watch.” So in comes a guy trying to cash a stolen $5,000 check the other day. The man made the mistake of calling, first, claiming to be a relative of the customer. Our Ms Golden knew something was amiss so she called local beat cops Felicia Aisthorpe and Johnna Watson.
Aisthorpe had her squad car and Watson came by motorcycle with a backup patrol.
“We’re here for you, Dale,” they proclaimed as they rounded up the suspect and shoved him into the black and white. And this is where the story gets good.
The partner comes up to the police car and asks how long his pal is going to be.
“What’s your name?” the officers ask, and he tells them. They run a check and he has a rap sheet that reads like a book. “Apparently these guys were part of a pretty big fraud ring,” says Golden, “and we broke it up.” These three women are like the Mod Squad — kicking butts and taking names. I guess it’s all in a day’s work.

E-MAIL BAG: In the wake of last week’s piece on veteran KSFO/KYA radio personality Gene Nelson, Ben Bruening writes: “I was 15 when I first discovered Gene and 30 when the new owners came in and he left the air (in the mid-’90s) I can’t explain to those who never heard him (my wife, for example) what he did that made him special. You had to hear him talk about the “Little Missus” and “little nippers” and where they had dinner last night and what movie they had seen to appreciate him.” Thanks, Ben, for the memories.

WARM HEART: Reader Bob Anderson had a sweet experience in Montclair the other day. He was shopping for gifts to bring 19 girls in an orphanage near where his wife, Edna Mitchell, is working in Kabul, Afghanistan. “The things I looked at for the older girls (12 to 15) were inappropriately sexy for Muslims,” he writes, adding he was worn out and discouraged when he finally stopped at Annie’s Hallmark in Montclair. Not only did owner Mohammed Khatib pick out 20 beautiful origami kits, he insisted that they be his gift to the girls. “Montclair is indeed a special place,” says Anderson, “and it’s people like Mohammed who make it so.”

TOSSING TOXINS: If you’ve got an old mercury thermometer around the house, it’s time to bag it up and take it to church. From 11 a.m. until noon on Sunday, March 27, the Montclair Presbyterian Church Eco-Stewards will give any Alameda County resident a brand new digital thermometer in exchange for their used mercury thermometer. And how dangerous are mercury thermometers? Just 400 of them could potentially contaminate 2.5 billion gallons of water. Save The Bay and the East Bay Municipal Utility District are co-sponsoring this drive and Pat Schwinn has more information at 339-2669. By the way, the Eco-stewards also collect old batteries and fluorescent light bulbs each week.

THINK GREEN: If you like home tours, then check out this spring’s “Build It Green Home Tour”. Reader Larry Hayden (owner of Federal Building Co.) says up to 30 “environmentally friendly” houses will be showcased in Alameda and Contra Costa counties on May 1. Sign up for the tour and you can see everything from super efficient solar homes to healthy homes with low toxicity. For more information, check the Web site.