Was It Prank or a Grinch? : Law: A ‘deputy’ cut into Bob Vincent’s Christmas tree sales in Dana Point. An ordinance does prevent tree sales until Dec. 4, but officials won’t put Vincent out on a limb.

Start with an old law everyone ignores, add a mystery man masquerading as a deputy, throw in a few Douglas firs and what you have is a plot befitting a detective novel.

At least that’s the way Bob Vincent sees it. And all over a few Christmas trees.

It all started last week when Vincent, an entrepreneur from Portland, Ore., staked out ground at the corner of Del Prado Avenue and Street of the Golden Lantern to sell his bright-green Douglas firs.

A bit early, maybe, but Vincent has been selling trees at the Dana Point location for the past four years, and business has been good. And no one, let alone the police, has ever protested.

But last Saturday all that changed when a man, dressed in the uniform of an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy, paid him a visit and ordered him to shut his business. The deputy cited an rdinance prohibiting the sale of trees before Dec. 4.

“You should be able to set up and sell Christmas trees on the Fourth of July, if you were stupid enough to do that,” Vincent said.

But the problem, according to police, was that the uniformed man was no deputy at all.

“It wasn’t anyone from our department,” said Lt. Dan Martini, speaking on behalf of the department, which provides police coverage for Dana Point. “This isn’t a case of the deputy who stole Christmas.”

If he wasn’t a deputy, then who was he?

Vincent isn’t sure, but he speculates that some of his competitors may be out to get him. Vincent said that a competitor, angry over the Del Prado Avenue lot’s early start, confronted him earlier this week and threatened to have his permit revoked for the entire holiday season if he didn’t close. The competitor would not identify himself, Vincent said.

As of Thursday, city officials said no complaint had been filed against Vincent, but conceded that there were grounds for legal action.

It seems that when the city was incorporated last year, Dana Point adopted a set of county laws, including an obscure one that prohibits the sale of Christmas trees before Dec. 4.

City officials said Vincent’s case was the first time they had heard of the ordinance and added that it was unlikely it would be enforced.

“I’m not going to rush back from my home this weekend to place a stop-work order on these guys,” said Ed Knight, city director of community development. “We’ll probably revoke this section by next year so we don’t run into the problem again.”

Vincent, meanwhile, said he plans to reopen his tree lot today, -- with or without the law on his side.