A LOOK BACK:Grinches of Christmas past in Huntington Beach

We all know that modern children’s Christmas classic about how the Grinch came to town and tried to cancel Christmas by stealing all the Christmas toys and goodies from the people of Whoville.

He had termites in his smile and all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile. The best words to describe this Christmas spoiler are, and I quote, “stink, stank, stunk.”

These words are apt for someone who would spoil the holidays for others. But Mr. Grinch was not the only one to spoil the joy of Christmas. You probably have known someone who has deliberately spoiled a Christmas for another.

This week, we’ll look back at a few times when a Grinch has spoiled someone’s Christmas here in Huntington Beach.

Our first Grinch really didn’t mean to spoil Christmas, but just one phone call did just that.

It all started when a woman called our police station on Dec. 12, 1943 to report a suspicious person.

At the time, the nation was at war, and local nerves were strained with visions of a saboteur coming in and blowing up our oil field.

This anonymous Grinch phoned police that she had seen a man stop his car repeatedly while checking a map and appeared to be casing the 140th Infantry barracks at Lake Park.

After giving a description of the man and his car to police, Assistant Police Chief Gene Belshe was assigned to the call.

He quickly located the man and the car on Palm Avenue and pulled up behind him and sounded his siren.

This frightened the stranger so much that he lost control of his car, jumped the curb and struck a fire hydrant, sending a stream of water high into the air.

Belshe found out that the Pasadena man, Dr. Stanley Chambers, was just looking around our town for property to invest in. Instead, he received a Christmas gift of a smashed grill, and the city crew had to replace a hydrant all because of a phone call.

It was during the Christmas holidays of 1950 that another Grinch would spoil the holiday of Russell Robb.

Robb owned a service station at Five Points, and one evening he forgot to lock a storage cabinet.

When he returned the next morning, he was minus 204 quarts of oil.

That same 1950 Christmas saw Bob Daly lose his shirt to a Grinch.

Daly had hung a pair of expensive riding breeches, two pair of pants and a plaid shirt on the clothesline to dry. When he returned, he found the clothesline empty. His German camera was missing from his car, too.

A Grinch spoiled Christmas for Minnie Wilson of Los Angeles in 1951.

Wilson was driving along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach when suddenly her car stalled.

She got out and left a note that the car would be picked up and taken to a garage to be fixed.

When she returned, she found that a Grinch had pushed her car around a corner, jacked it up and taken all four of her rims and tires.

Our next Grinch didn’t get away at spoiling Christmas.

The Capri Café, at 406 Pacific Coast Highway, received a late-night visit from a Grinch during Christmas 1953.

In the early morning hours of Dec. 17, Glen Peterson entered the closed Capri and stole about $90 in bills and coins. But on Christmas Eve, the 30-year old Huntington Beach Grinch was spotted spending money a little too freely.

When police questioned him about this, Peterson admitted he had taken the Capri’s money after police identified his fingerprints at the scene of the crime.

Peterson also admitted to breaking into the Green Shack at Main and Clay on Dec. 22 and taking some cash and drinking a few beers at the popular tavern.

This Grinch got what he deserved and spent his Christmas in the county jail.

Our next spoiler received the unofficial title of the meanest Grinch in town.

It began early on the morning of Dec. 24, 1955, when Elmer Sresovich got up at 4 a.m. and covered the sidewalk in front of his house on 13th Street with a mound of dirt so neighborhood kids couldn’t go riding by on their new Christmas bicycles, tricycles, scooters, skates or little red wagons.

Police called on Sresovich and informed him that the sidewalks were public property and cited him for obstruction. They also told Sresovich to get his shovel and remove all that dirt right away.

His neighbor, Walter Martin, figured that this Grinch just didn’t like children and wanted to spoil their Christmas.

The title of the meanest Grinch in the world must surely go to someone who robbed a house during the Christmas holidays of 1947.

While the Clay Ellis family was away from home on Eighth Street, a Grinch broke in and smashed their little child’s piggy bank and stole all his money he had saved.

Can you imagine anyone so mean as to steal money out of a child’s piggy bank on Christmas just to get a few pennies and spoil that child’s Christmas memories forever?