Chicago police: ‘Santa Claus just set a car on fire’

The Chicago Police Department put out an unusual dispatch call Saturday night.

“Santa Claus just set a car on fire,” a dispatcher told officers.

To be sure, there was no confirmation it was really Santa — just a man wearing a red Santa hat who was seen setting the fire near Columbus and Hamlin avenues in the Ashburn neighborhood just after 9 p.m., a police source said.

“We’re still waiting on the paper for that,” the source said of the reported car fire. “But I don’t believe it’s serious.”