Stolen Truck Recovered, Its Fish Cargo Still Missing

A tractor-trailer stolen from Northridge on Sunday night with 45,000 pounds of frozen halibut inside was recovered empty in Long Beach on Tuesday morning, police said.

“All the cargo was gone,” said Det. Marc Zavala of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“The tractor and trailer appeared to be OK, but the fish was all taken.”

The halibut was estimated to be worth $138,000, Zavala said.

The truck had transported the fish from Seattle and was parked Sunday night in the gated grounds of a small trucking company, J.S. McDonald, before a scheduled delivery in downtown Los Angeles Monday morning, Zavala said.

He added that police had few leads Tuesday afternoon.

The truck’s owners, West Hills residents, were relieved to recover their light blue Freight Liner tractor and white Wabash trailer.

“It’s still a huge loss of revenue because we can’t use the truck this week” because of the police investigation, said Noel McDonald, who owns the trucking business with her husband, Jeff.

“This really hit us hard.”