Tow Firm’s Owner Held in House Theft Case

Los Angeles police Thursday arrested the owner of a house-towing company after three of the firm’s employees allegedly tried to steal a vacant Sherman Oaks house.

Alfred A. Hampton, 53, of Altadena was taken into custody on suspicion of grand theft after he went to the Police Department’s Van Nuys station to tell police he believed that he had permission to remove the house in the 4400 block of Vista Del Monte Avenue, Detective Douglas Wilson said.

Three workers were arrested Wednesday after neighbors told police that they saw the men preparing to tow the house. The neighbors had been asked by police to be on the lookout for house thieves after the owner, Lloyd Farber, 41, of Agoura, noticed that the house was standing four feet off the ground on beams when he inspected the property Sept. 12, Sgt. Tim Day said.

Hampton told police that he had received Farber’s permission to move the house, Wilson said. Farber said Hampton contacted him about moving the house, but the two never signed a contract authorizing the move, according to Wilson.

Wilson said that although the three workers were still under arrest, it appeared that they did not realize that they were taking the house illegally, but were “following directions from Mr. Hampton.” He said he believed that Hampton, however, “had some type of criminal intent.”

Hampton earlier this year towed a house to a vacant South Los Angeles lot without the property owner’s permission, but criminal charges were waived after Hampton agreed to pay the cost of demolishing the house, said James Washington, chief street use inspector for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works.