Sepulveda Boulevard ‘Sting’ : 28 Men Are Arrested for Soliciting Policewomen

As the sky above Sepulveda Boulevard darkened Friday, a team of undercover Los Angeles policewomen illustrated that, although fewer prostitutes are on the boulevard, their customers have not gone away.

Police arrested 28 men during a four-hour “sting” after women residents of the neighborhood complained they were harassed by men who mistook them for prostitutes.

From 8 p.m. to shortly past midnight, five policewomen dressed in casual clothes took turns standing at the corner bus stop at Rayen Street. In the first 18 minutes of the sweep, one of the officers was approached seven times, leading to two arrests.

Later in the evening, several motorists waited in turn to proposition another of the undercover officers. Once the men made a specific offer of money for sex, they were arrested.

The youngest arrested in the sting was 17 years old; the oldest, 59.

Among those arrested was a short, balding, 40-year-old Northridge accountant who had been quick to pull his late-model car up to the curb.

“What do you want?” the officer asked him.

“Everything for five dollars.”

“What do you mean by everything?”

He told her. A police car and two motorcycles roared toward him, and it was all over. Later, he sat and wept.

Another man, 30, of Westlake Village, said as he was led away, “Why did I do this? . . . My life is over. My wife will kill me when I get home.”

The police task force was part of a continuing effort to rid Sepulveda Boulevard of prostitution and other street crime. Vice detectives say they have observed a lull in prostitution on the boulevard in recent months. Some of the prostitutes appear to have moved to Sherman Way in Reseda, said Sgt. Thomas Wade.

By arresting men who patronize prostitutes, “We’re also trying to send a message to those who would come here to be serviced that this is a respectable community,” Police Capt. Mark D. Stevens said.

Those arrested were handed pamphlets about the dangers of AIDS and venereal disease, he said.