Arrested While Unloading U-Haul : Sylmar Man Charged in Trailer Theft

A Sylmar man arrested for allegedly stealing a loaded U-Haul trailer and a car from a Sylmar motel is a suspect in at least six similar thefts in the last year, police said.

Roberto Perez, 23, was arrested at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday after police, alerted by neighbors, caught him unloading the contents of the trailer into an apartment building on San Fernando Road, said Detective Jim Atwell of the Los Angeles police. After breaking his leg in what police said was an attempt to escape by jumping into a flood control channel, Perez was taken to the jail ward of the USC Medical Center, where he was charged with grand theft.

The car and the van were reported stolen from a motel on Roxford Street late Tuesday, Atwell said. The van, rented by a couple who were moving from Arizona to Oregon, contained $20,000 worth of furniture and personal belongings, he said.

Atwell said the crime was similar to six other thefts of rental trailers reported in the Sylmar area in the last year. All of the trailers were stolen from the parking lots of motels near freeways in the area, he said, and all were later found empty. No property has been recovered in any of the previous thefts, he said.

Atwell said one suspect had been arrested and released in connection with the thefts, but that all of the cases were still considered open. He speculated that the contents of the stolen trailers had been sold at swap meets.

Atwell said police had at least one other suspect in Wednesday’s theft. Police withheld the names of the owners of the stolen property, who apparently left for Oregon early Wednesday morning without being notified that their property had been recovered.