Greg Steffek was dressed as Santa Claus when a Milwaukee man allegedly walked into Steffek’s bar and handed over the counterfeit bill for a $5 shot. When Steffeck’s son checked the bill, he noticed the watermarks were missing.

The discovery led to “Santa Claus” grabbing the man and holding on until police arrested him along with two other people in a suspected getaway vehicle.

City and school officials here are scrambling to react after it came to light that a property owner wants to set up a gun shop kitty-corner to an elementary school.

But they're not likely to prevent the shop from opening, and they may even be limited in what they can do to keep other such businesses away from schools.

Michael G. Govas, who owns a commercial and apartment building at 2192 S. 60th St., applied for a business occupancy permit in August to operate Shorty's Shooting Sports in a 1,500-square-foot storefront in the building.

The application says the store would sell "hunting supplies, handguns, shotguns, ammo, basically all hunting and shooting supplies, long guns."

The store is at S. 60th and W. Grant streets, the same intersection where Longfellow Elementary School in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District is located.

"I'm all for people having guns," said Diane Dorow, a neighborhood resident with a son in third grade at Longfellow. "I'm just real concerned that there's going to be problems.

"There's plenty of places they could open a gun shop, but across from an elementary school? It's just not right."