Spreading Yule Cheer $10 at a Time

For hundreds of poor people in the eastern San Fernando Valley, Santa Claus arrived in a police car instead of a flying sleigh.

A Simi Valley businessman spent Christmas Eve handing out thousands of dollars in $10 bills to hundreds of recipients in housing projects, at church services and in hospital emergency rooms.

“I like giving money away,” said Bill Baer, grinning broadly as he held up the last envelope of cash. “It’s almost like an addiction; it feels so good, I just want to do it more.”

Baer, 50, owner of Gemstone Equipment & Manufacturing Co. in Simi Valley, said he could afford to give away the money because “this year I quit spending thousands of dollars sending all my clients and vendors junk they don’t want for Christmas--like fruitcakes, nuts and cheese rolls.”

Rather than donate the money to charity, Baer said he wanted the satisfaction of putting the money “right into the hands” of people who need it. “My employees all thought it was a great idea,” he said.

Baer had the help of Los Angeles Police Sgt. Peter Whittingham, who looks more like a linebacker than an elf.

Baer refused to say how much money he gave away, saying only that “it’s in the thousands.” Police agreed that the amount was in the thousands but also would not reveal the amount, at Baer’s request.

Baer, who police dubbed “The Simi Valley Santa,” walked into the Police Department’s Foothill station in Pacoima about 7 p.m. and asked for assistance in “giving a few thousand dollars away,” Sgt. Steve Williams said.

“He figured police would know where all the needy people were. He wanted our help locating them,” Williams said. “He also wanted our protection in case anything went wrong.”

A few hours earlier, Baer said, he had tried to give away money on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, but he drew so many eager takers that he feared that he would be robbed.

“All those people in shopping carts surrounded me--it was scary. There were hundreds of them,” Baer said. “It was so frustrating. I couldn’t give my money away because I was afraid of being robbed.”

Baer headed to the Valley instead. He said he picked the Foothill Division, which covers the Valley’s northeast corner, not because of any special ties to the area but to help police there repair their image, which was tarnished in March by the beating of motorist Rodney G. King in Lake View Terrace, which had been videotaped by a witness.

“I wanted to help some needy people and I thought I could help police build some goodwill too,” he said. Baer threw his sack stuffed with envelopes into Whittingham’s patrol car and the two began hunting for needy people in Pacoima and Lake View Terrace. They visited the emergency rooms of Holy Cross and Olive View medical centers.

“He’s really great--like a real Santa Claus, but without the fancy outfit,” Harold, a homeless man in his 60s who did not want to give his last name, said as he proudly displayed a $10 bill he received from Baer while awaiting treatment for stomach flu at Olive View in Mission Hills.

Baer said he tried to dole out the envelopes to people with children, in many cases giving an envelope to each family member.

At Olive View, Baer handed out cash to an indigent woman about to give birth and to her family, Whittingham said.

Their final stop was the aptly named Guardian Angel Catholic Church at 10886 Lehigh Ave., Pacoima, where Baer and Whittingham stood outside the church and handed out more than 100 envelopes to parishioners as Mass ended at 10 p.m.

“It went so fast, I wish I had some more,” Baer said afterward. “People don’t realize how much fun this is. I can’t wait to do it again.”

Whittingham agreed that it was an unusual Christmas Eve. “I’ve never had a patrol quite like this,” he said.