Santa May Have Staged Mall Rescue, Police Say

A shopping mall Santa praised as a hero and the woman he purportedly saved from robbers in a parking lot were acquaintances before the incident, they both have confirmed, and he has a history of involvement in highly publicized events.

Los Angeles police are investigating the incident as an attempted robbery but also plan to look into the possibility that it was staged, Detective Bobby Leon said Friday.

“They say it’s not a false report, but I will look into other information that the Police Department has received regarding this case, which insinuates that what occurred may have been a staged event,� Leon said.

“My previous experience with this individual is that he wants to be a grandstander,� said Sgt. Dennis Zine, describing a previous police experience with the Santa, Daniel Hobbit, 40. “He wanted to use governmental agencies to promote his interests.�

Hobbit was credited Wednesday with rescuing Gloria Margolis, 36, of Granada Hills, from a man who demanded her keys as she was getting into her car in the parking lot of the Granada Village Shopping Center.

Margolis said she screamed for help and was rescued by Hobbit, a volunteer Santa Claus at the center. Hobbit raced 100 yards to her side and scared the assailant, who fled the parking lot with an accomplice in a waiting car, she said.

Police Sgt. Dennis Feeley said that according to a police report there were no witnesses to the incident and police were unaware that Margolis and Hobbit knew each other.

Leon said he plans to re-interview Hobbit and Margolis about the incident.

Hobbit said in an interview that the event was not staged and that he was unaware the woman was Margolis until after the rescue. Margolis said she did not know her rescuer was Hobbit--who was wearing a fake Santa beard--until a reporter told her his name shortly after the incident. Margolis posed for news photos with her head on Hobbit’s shoulder at the time.

“This was not a joke,� Hobbit said. “It was a wonderful coincidence that happened when I heard this woman yelling out in the parking lot.�

Since the incident, Hobbit and Margolis have been featured in a brief segment of the ABC-TV morning program “Home Show.� They also were guests on the Rick Dees show on radio station KIIS, where Hobbit was awarded $500, which he immediately donated to charity, said a spokeswoman for the television network and radio station.

Hobbit said he met Margolis at a charity benefit they had worked on at the Granada Village Shopping Center about six months ago. When asked whether he had met Margolis when he was previously employed at a Northridge video store--as Margolis indicated--Hobbit said he knew she had been a customer at the store.

Hobbit is no stranger to publicity.

He made his debut as a heroic Santa on Dec. 12, 1989, when he said he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on an 11-year-old boy choking on a wad of chewing gum. The incident at Panorama Mall was widely reported.

In February, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division boycotted a stunt show Hobbit organized as assistant manager of the Video Super Shop in Northridge, an event that was billed as a tribute to Los Angeles police.