A pilot who sought the public’s help in identifying the person who stole a trailer containing his small plane found what was left of his property in the form of burnt bits and pieces.
The burnt frame of the trailer that was holding his aircraft is all that was salvageable after the odd find was discovered in Long Beach. It was stolen Jan. 6 from a parking lot in Torrance.
“I'm heartbroken about it,” Anis Pradhan told NBC4 before the remnants of his plane were found. “It's just not an airplane to me, it's my work. I have dedicated all my time into it to put it together so it will be a whole airplane to be flown and teach.”
According to the Long Beach Fire Department, firefighters spotted the trailer and plane in their city intentionally set on fire. It was dumped on the side of the road on 17th Street near Daisy Avenue, fire officials said.
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“I was shocked, I didn’t know what to think,” Pradhan said. “I couldn’t think of anything. I just roamed around the burnt carcass of my airplane, not even really airplane because there was nothing there. It was burnt up and dust and debris.”
Surveillance camera captured the driver of a white truck pull into a parking lot on Lockness Avenue near Sepulveda Boulevard in Torrance the evening of Jan. 6. He then attached Pradhan’s trailer to his car and drove off less than two minutes later.
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“Once they figured out they couldn’t sell the airplane or the trailer they didn’t want to leave the evidence they just torched it up,” Pradhan said.
No arrests have been made in connection with the theft and arson.
