Escape Claus : Granada Hills: St. Nick, springing to the aid of a woman, foils a carjacking attempt in a parking lot.

It’s true.

Santa does know if you’ve been naughty or nice.

In fact, Santa foiled a carjacking attempt in the San Fernando Valley on Wednesday. Without hesitation, Los Angeles police said, Santa came to the rescue of a woman after she was grabbed by a man who demanded her car keys as she was getting out of her car.

Gloria Margolis, 36, of Granada Hills had just arrived at the Granada Village Shopping Center about 10:30 a.m. when she leaned back inside her car to make sure she had her Christmas shopping list.

It was then that the would-be carjacker appeared.

“This man came up right from behind me. He said give me your keys or I’ll cut you,” said Margolis, who was not hurt. “I was petrified. I just held on to my things.”

She also screamed for help, and Santa, in the person of Daniel Hobbit, 40, who was working as jolly old St. Nick about 100 feet away in the shopping center, raced to her aid.

“I saw this guy pushing her up against the car,” said Hobbit, who works as a documentary filmmaker when not playing Santa. “I started shouting ‘Stop!’ and running over there.”

The assailant took one look at a Santa Claus charging him and ran. He jumped into a car with an accomplice who was waiting on the other side of the parking lot and the two men sped away, police said.

Margolis, whose back was toward Hobbit, didn’t see her rescuer until “this big Santa Claus just appeared, put his arms around me and asked if I was all right.”

But she said she vividly remembers the stunned look in her attacker’s eyes when he saw Santa.

“I saw this look of terror,” said Margolis, still shaking her head in disbelief four hours later. “His jaw dropped. He let go of my purse and ran. Then, I turned and there was Santa.”

Unfortunately, this Santa didn’t have any flying reindeer or the bad guy might be in jail.

“I was out of breath,” said Hobbit, who doesn’t need a pillow around his tummy to play Santa. “I’m glad he ran away.”

Police said Margolis and Hobbit were extremely fortunate that the assailant did not have a gun.

“I’m glad this one has a happy ending,” Sgt. Dennis Feeley said. “If it wasn’t for this guy interceding, this woman would have surely lost her car and her purse.”

“I’ve always believed in Santa,” Margolis said, hugging Hobbit and giving him a peck on the whiskers. “I still leave cookies and milk out for him every Christmas Eve. I promise I won’t stop. Ever.”

This isn’t the first time Hobbit has played the hero while working as a Santa Claus. Three years ago, Hobbit received a commendation from Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley for reviving a child who had passed out after choking on chewing gum. He was working in the Panorama Mall in Panorama City on Dec. 12, 1989, when he saw Renny Schuffman, 11, pass out. Hobbit, who knows cardiopulmonary resuscitation, revived the child.