When Peter Douglas took delivery on his...

When Peter Douglas took delivery on his giraffes (see photos above), he guaranteed that he won’t have the problem that his brother Michael did last year. The latter had to give away his 2-year-old serval named Sangral because it wouldn’t stop growing. A serval is an African cat with a body like a cheetah’s and spots like those of a leopard.

Douglas turned it over to a zoo in Atascadero. He also sent along a couple of grand to build a cage for it.

Despite Los Angeles’ recently imposed law against selling realistic looking toy guns, United Press International reporter Susan Seager says she had no trouble buying them during a shopping spree at several local toy stores as well as large discount and department stores.

She even got herself a plastic Uzi submachine gun. She didn’t point it at any policemen.

About the only attention she drew, Seager said, was from a fellow shopper in the checkout line at a K mart, who saw her purchase and asked, “Hey, didn’t they pass a law making it illegal to sell that?”

Store officials seemed either ignorant of the city ordinance that took effect on Jan. 13, or confused by it, Seager reported. Some store owners said they were waiting for formal notification of the law before taking the playtime weapons off the shelves.

“That’s alarming,” said City Councilman Nate Holden, who wrote the ordinance. “We’ll have to cite those suckers. Anybody who is selling a toy gun will be cited before the week is over if I find out about it.”

Cmdr. William Booth of the Los Angeles Police Department said, however, that officers will warn merchants before cracking down.

Among four vehicles that Glendale narcotics investigators said they seized when they arrested eight Colombians and confiscated 438 pounds of cocaine was a Ford Thunderbird.

License plate: SNO BRDD.

Although the registered owners of the vehicle were not among those arrested, Lt. Mike Post said that, during surveillance, suspect Manuel Rodriguez, 37, of Woodland Hills “was seen engaged in some of the group’s activities while driving that vehicle.”

State investigators want a Signal Hill-area man to cool it. They claim he has been making and selling something called Soli Anti-Freeze and Summer Coolant, which allegedly does about as much to protect a car engine as plain water.

“Basically,” said Floyd Worcester of the state Department of Food and Agriculture’s Division of Measurement Standards, “it’s water with a small amount of antifreeze solution in it--but not enough to be of any benefit.”

This stuff, according to Worcester, has a freezing point of 27 degrees Fahrenheit and a boiling point of 215 degrees. State standards require antifreeze to have a freezing point of minus 34 degrees when mixed with equal parts of water and a full-strength boiling point of at least 300 degrees.

Worcester did not release the name of the man selling Soli but said it is being referred to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which will be asked to consider misdemeanor charges under the state Business and Professions Code.

So far, Worcester said, the mixture apparently has been distributed only in Los Angeles County. He agreed that freezing weather is not a big problem here but pointed out, “If someone drives up to Big Bear, it could make a difference.”