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The “Accidental” LAPD Volunteer Turns 90 Years Old

Mission Hills.  Sylvia Weller, a long-time resident of the San Fernando Valley, turned 90 years old on November 10, and detectives and officers from LAPD’s Mission Police Station will be celebrating this milestone with Sylvia today at the Buon Gusto Italian Restaurant in Mission Hills.

“I had just quit my job in 2002 as an office manager and I saw a HELP WANTED sign in a window of a police substation,” Sylvia explains.  “When I asked how much the job paid, the ladies laughed and said they were all volunteers.”

Sylvia says she shrugged her shoulders and signed up to volunteer, so that’s why LAPD’s oldest volunteer calls herself the “accidental volunteer.”  She did her first three years at the Devonshire Police Station, then she became the first volunteer at the new Mission Police Station when it opened in 2005.

“Sylvia does anything but filing here in detectives,” said Lt. Paul Vernon, commanding officer of the Mission Detective Division.  “While she tells us it’s a privilege for HER to volunteer, we consider her a blessing to us!  She is quite the character, telling stories, paying compliments, and always having the most positive attitude.”

Sylvia Weller was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1923.  She was married to her husband for 43 years and they moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1967.  She was widowed 29 years ago and never remarried.  She says she’s only broken one heart since then.

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