My Martine is as sweet as sweet can be, but her heart can be steel-plated when it comes to street hooligans. On most days, she takes a long walk in the neighborhood, keeping a weather eye out for what she calls “tiny treasures.” Sometimes these are foreign coins or interesting lanyards or any number of things.

Lately, however, some of her discoveries have been on the alarming side:

• Two baseball bats, near a bus stop ad that had been vandalized
• A bolt cutter
• A large sledgehammer

In each case, she walked the item to the Santa Monica Police Station and handed it to the officer on duty. I cannot help but think that the local police are wondering what she will bring in next. Will it be an AK-47? An RPG (that’s rocket propelled grenade)? A box of land mines?

The streets of West L.A. and Santa Monica are getting rougher each year, and that’s reflected in what she finds.