Well, that was a grim Daily Californian homepage yesterday. The top six stories: pedestrian hit by car on Telegraph; Berkeley summer camp evacuated due to Tahoe fire, body found near the Berkeley Marina, beloved local activist hit by train, Cal student to be tried for killing David Halberstam, and memorials for the local murder-suicide family. On the bright side, the other article on the home page is that Cal basketball star DeVon Hardin has decided not to enter the NBA draft.

Hey, remember the kid killed for saving a parking space in the Richmond on Geary Street last year? The SFPD arrested two more people in that killing, and now say they've got all four of the suspects in custody now.

And this is nice (if sad) -- The Red Onion restaurant in El Cerrito is offering free meals today if you donate at least $25 to a reward fund to help find the people who killed the owner, Alfredo Figueroa, two months ago. Figueroa's day job employer, a sheet metal company, will match whatever's raised, and if they never pay out the reward, the money will go to the family. Figueroa used to start work at the sheet metal place at 6 a.m., take his kids to school at 8, and then go back to the sheet metal place until 3, at which point he'd go work in the restaurant. The fund as of now is at $25K -- the sheet metal company has already kicked in $10,000 and insurance companies have kicked in another $10,000.

Yuck. A SFPD cop was arrested for soliciting a 14-year-old prostitute in Oakland. The cop's a motorcycle squad supervisor and is a 37-year veteran of the force. The 14-year-old said it was her first time on the streets, the cop was apparently cooperative when the Oakland PD caught the two of them in his car, and told the Oakland officers that he thought the girl was 18.

How the mighty broker has fallen in these days of the downturn in the local real estate market! Curbed SF passes along the following warning -- there's a couple robbing realtors at house showings. While one distracts the reality by talking about buying the house in all cash, the other one grabs everything in sight. The male uses the name Paul Chapman or Paul McClung, the woman is older than him and has "uneven smokers' teeth." They sometimes bring a small dog to the open houses.

And here's a heartwarming story to end your crime blotter news! An abandoned shepherd-lab mix puppy, found unsuitable for adoption due to his boisterous personality, turned out to be an ace at law enforcement! He's going into training to become a search-and-rescue dog. Yay! (also -- do you want to be an animal control officer? The City of Oakland is hiring.)

Picture of an SFPD motorcycle by Telstar Logistics.

As discussed in the SFist Contributes tips page, what people heard in Ingleside Heights early yesterday morning was a mysterious car explosion. Witnesses saw a man park a car, get out of the car and into someone else's, and then the parked car burst into flames. Around 7:00 a.m, another car mysteriously exploded, this time in the Tenderloin at Ellis and Taylor. The two incidents aren't thought to be related -- but how weird.

Gimmi Rhoads-Haro, an animal hoarder, was caught in Marin with her two children (5 years old and 2), four cats, and a pit bull living in a filthy apartment. The neighbors called the authorities due to the "overpowering stench of urine" coming from the place. When the police gained entry into the house, the children were half-clothed, and walking barefoot on a carpet soaked with urine. Rhoads-Haro didn't take well to the raid, at one point telling the cops to "take a flying f*** on a rolling doughnut." Rhoads-Haro has a history with Marin -- as a child, her family's house in San Anselmo was considered so filthy it was declared a public health hazard, and she was arrested in 1990 for hoarding 56 animals.

And six people arrested and seven guns confiscated at the Fanatics Sports Bar at Cesar Chavez and Third Ave. early Sunday morning, as two cars exchanged gunfire. Witnesses said they saw gunfire coming from a Nissan SUV but when the cops arrived, the shots were coming from a 98 Jaguar. One man was shot but is expected to survive.

Picture off Flickr by kate at yr own risk.