ARLETA : 2 Trailers Stolen at Moving Company

Two large trucks filled with the furniture and personal belongings of three families were stolen from the yard of an Arleta moving and storage company in the second such cargo theft in the San Fernando Valley this month, Los Angeles police said Monday.

An estimated $200,000 worth of home furnishings were driven off the lot of L.A. Move and Storage, in the 9200 block of Branford Street, early Thursday morning, said Detective Marc Zavala of the LAPD’s burglary-auto theft division.

Two thieves apparently hooked up the 48-foot-long trailers to their own big-rig cabs and drove them off the company’s yard, which was not fenced, Zavala said. The trucks’ drivers, who were sleeping inside the moving company’s office across the street, heard the noise but thought it was garbage collectors, Zavala said.

On Oct. 8, a shipment of cognac worth an estimated $500,000 was stolen in Mission Hills as its driver rested inside a nearby motel, Zavala said.

The truckload of cognac from Oakland, parked near the intersection of Chatsworth Street and Sepulveda Boulevard, was bound for San Pedro, where it was to be shipped overseas, the detective said. He added that police found the truck empty in San Diego.

Zavala said it was unclear whether the two thefts were related to each other or to other crimes, noting that cargo-theft victims often report such incidents to their insurance companies while failing to do the same with police.