Grand Theft Ketchup

Last weekend, The Orange County Register reports, Steve Rocco was busted for stealing a bottle of ketchup from a cafeteria at Chapman University. He was observed taking the bottle by a security guard who alerted police, who cited Rocco for misdemeanor theft, for which he will have to pay a $250 fine if convicted by the justice system, a system that, as Rocco has personally revealed and first reported here, is secretly controlled by the Partnership, a shadowy cabal Rocco first came across back in 1981 when he was busted for stealing several rolls of Kodak film and a Smoke Craft sausage at an Albertsons store in Santa Ana.

Convicted of that theft by a judge and jury controlled by the Partnership–which in turn is controlled by, you guessed it, Albertsons, Kodak and Smoke Craft sausage–Rocco dedicated his life to unveiling this dark conspiracy.

Well, that, and selling stuff at swap meets and running for local school-board races that he never won until four years ago, when he beat a union-backed candidate to become the wackiest member of the already-wacky Orange Unified School District Board of Trustees. Ever since, he's been an enigma, showing up for meetings in dirty clothes, a funky hat and sunglasses, mystifying the public with his bizarre rants about the Partnership.

Click on the Rocco Loco archive for this blog and check out our past stories, including a post about Fred Smoller, the Chapman University professor whom the Reg reports is about to unveil his Rocco documentary, which is likely why Rocco has been visiting the Orange campus recently.