CHURCH AIR CONDITIONERS STOLEN THIEVES REMOVE 200-POUND UNITS PLUS SLABS.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS - Thieves took two air conditioning units - complete with their concrete slabs - from Woodland Hills Christian Church.

Church officials said Monday the 200-pound units probably were stolen for resale as scrap metal. Experts in the scrap business disagreed, joking that the AC units would better serve thieves in a fiery afterlife than on the market.

``I've never heard of something like this,'' said Los Angeles Police Detective Lindy Gligorijevic, who heads the West Valley Division's Burglary unit.

Church members said the two units were stolen between late Friday night and early Saturday morning. The theft wasn't discovered until late Saturday morning when a custodian showed up to clean the sanctuary of the church, which sits at the corner of Shoup Avenue and Oxnard Street.

``It was a complete shock when we walked in,'' said Joyce Scott, a board member of the church.

``But the one thing we have to be thankful for this week is they didn't do it in July.''

Church members figure the thieves were looking for those specific units, worth $5,000 apiece, to install elsewhere - or that they wanted scrap metal to recycle.

Air-conditioner installers in the West Valley said they occasionally hear about such thefts, in which burglars seek quick cash for the copper contained inside the units.

``We hear about it from time to time, that air-conditioner units have been cut,'' said Victor Nili, manager of Nilco Inc., an air-conditioning service company in Woodland Hills.

But these newer stolen units were made with aluminum coils - not the more valuable copper, scrap-metal experts said.

At most, the thieves will pocket about $25 for each unit's coils, said Steve Schweitzer, owner of Number 1 Recycling in Sun Valley.

``It seems like they went through an awful lot of trouble to make some people miserable,'' Schweitzer said.

To prevent theft, Nili recommends his customers mount the units on the roof rather than the ground.

Next time the church will opt for the rooftop, church elder Joe Weber said. But first the church must come up with the money to replace the stolen units. It will cost $1,000 to meet the church's insurance deductible.

``I feel for the people who had the need to steal them. There's certainly a need, for (such) desperation,'' Weber said. ``If they had a need, it would be better to make it known to us. Maybe we could help them.''

Police and church members asked for the public's help in locating the units. Both air conditioners are gray-colored, American Standard brand, five-ton capacity units. Each is about 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall.

Anyone with information is asked to contact West Valley detectives at [phone] or [phone] after office hours.

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Photo:

Joyce Scott, left, and Linda Wood of Woodland Hills Christian Church stand near the sites of the two stolen air conditioners.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer