It looked like a Blue Christmas for...

It looked like a Blue Christmas for Victor Diaz of Sepulveda the other night when thieves broke into his garage and stole his van, which contained toys for his four young children as well as two six-packs of beer.

The next morning Diaz spotted the car in Pacoima. The gifts were still there. The beer, however, was gone.

Even when you’re Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, your orders can be ignored.

Knight Protective Industries has been running radio commercials for several months in which it states that L.A.’s “current police chief” owns one of their home security systems.

“We get asked about this every few months,” said Cmdr. William Booth, a police spokesman. “No, he (Gates) does not endorse the company. He has told them he objects to them making this reference. But he does have the (security) system, so apparently there’s nothing he can do about it--unless he takes it out.”

Contacted by The Times, a spokesman for Knight said, “We haven’t heard anything about it (Gates’ objection).”

Coincidentally, though, the company added that it has decided to stop running the ad.

Skid Row Santa rode up to L.A.’s Midnight Mission in a Cadillac for the eighth straight year Wednesday and handed out more than $7,000 in $10 bills to the poor and homeless.

Santa, a South Bay automobile dealer who prefers to remain anonymous, also left Clancy Imislund, the mission’s managing director, about $1,000 to hand out to the handicapped people, women and children who are served breakfast there.

“I was the only one who knew he was coming today,” said Imislund, “but we had a much bigger crowd than usual. It’s incredible how word gets out on the street beforehand that he’s coming.”

Don Harris didn’t need to buy any ornaments to hang from the branches of his 3-foot-tall Christmas tree. It sparkled enough as is, consisting entirely of rhinestones. Harris, a West Hollywood hairstylist, says he spent 304 hours refinishing and assembling the pieces, which included a flamingo pin possibly worn by Judy Garland in a movie. After all that work, don’t even think of asking whether this tree will be set out on the curb after the holidays. He said he’s been offered $3,000 for the glittering plant.

Hooray for Hollywood!:

No sooner had the El Salvador government announced the arrest of church worker Jennifer Jean Casolo for allegedly hiding guns in her back yard than movie producers started telephoning The Times bureau in San Salvador. One minor mogul went so far as to fax this request to The Times: “Perhaps you would ask Ms. Casolo if she would option her story.”

Alas, no soap.

Aside from the fact that newspapers aren’t supposed to act as go-betweens in film deals, the reporters were a bit busy covering the combat between government and rebel forces, and Casolo had other things on her mind, such as getting out of jail.

As it turned out, she was abruptly released soon afterward and went home to Connecticut. Probably ruined the script.