FRESNO, Calif. — A car hauler trailer that one Fresno man says he uses for work to get the job done was stolen out of his driveway on Tuesday night.
The thief was spotted on camera driving off in a white truck around 11:36 p.m. and taking off with the trailer.
It happened in the neighborhood near Clinton and Brawley Avenues in Fresno.
“They hooked it up and they broke the lock on the on the side of it and they dragged it off and it popped off,” said Paul Granados, whose trailer belonged to him.
Granados says there was distinguishing factors to the trailer.
“The car trailer had a winch on it and. The offender was bent and one of the lips, the corner lip, was like a little bit lifted up. So, I mean somebody will pretty much see it,” he said.
He says the cost of the hauler was around $7,500 and is now in the works of getting a new one so his tow work doesn’t fall shot.
The cost of a new one? He says roughly around $8,000 – $12,000 which is a big setback.
“Most definitely, yeah. Because that’s not money that I think pretty much a lot of us don’t have to, you know, dish out real quick, just for something like that to happen,” Granados said.
He says it is a very unfortunate situation, but he will be ready for next time with security measures to prevent it from happening again.
He is now warning other too.
“Do whatever you can to kind of lock it up and make sure for something like this not to happen to them,” he said.
Granados is offering a reward for any leads with hopes to find his hauler.
Maybe hopefully someone can help me find it and get it right back so we can start, you know, making money.
With theft crimes becoming so common, he says, it is just unfortunate that it literally hit home saying, “it happens, you know, happens to the best of us. Unfortunately, I was the one that happened that night.”
As for a message to the thief, he says, “Hopefully they, you know, hopefully have a heart to bring it back. If not, I mean I hope they put get used to it. I just hope that they had a blessed Thanksgiving and a good weekend. I have no resentments or anger towards them at all. I just… you know, it is what it is.”