TALL TROUBLES FOR BIG COLLECTOR; RAID ON WAREHOUSE LED TO RECORD SEIZURE, FEDERAL CHARGES OF THEFT : A BIG COLLECTOR.

Byline: Jaxon Van Derbeken Daily News Staff Writer

If it has anything to do with Paul Werner Tobeler, it's probably big.

He has a big name - he claims to be an American-born scion of the family that makes Toblerone chocolate.

He's a big man - about 6 feet 1 inch tall, weighing more than 250 pounds.

He has big hair - a pompadour with a long salt-and-pepper mane he ties in a pony tail.

He drives a big red Cadillac. If the honors he displays on his office wall are any indication, he is a big figure in the Republican Party.

And, authorities say he is a big crook - indicted on charges of stealing millions of dollars worth of Caterpillar tractors and other monster-size earth-moving equipment.

Even bigger was the surprise that awaited FBI agents April 1 when they moved to seize Tobeler's property and found not tractors but a warehouse filled with airplane parts, lawn jockeys, minerals and just about anything and everything else.

The seized items filled two government warehouses. Authorities could pick and chose from everything from electroshock therapy equipment to an assortment of vintage ice boxes, to a museum-size collection of minerals and a canvas device used by firefighters to catch people jumping from buildings.

Some was left behind at the warehouse because of the sheer mass of the collection.

In fact, when the preliminary cataloging was done, the FBI reported that the seizure last month constitutes the largest single confiscation - by volume - in Los Angeles and possibly the nation.

Tobeler declined to discuss specifics of the criminal charges against him, but he insisted he is a collector, not a crook.

``I'm a pack rat. I collect everything, everything,'' said Tobeler, 41, as he surveyed the ransacked room that had been his warehouse office.

Law enforcement authorities see it differently.

They've charged Tobeler and his wife with a conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles across state lines, a federal offense. Tobeler is free on $200,000 bond, awaiting trial in September in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. So far, agents have recovered more than 100 pieces of supposedly pilfered tractor equipment, court documents show.

According to the federal indictment, Tobeler ran A & P Rentals Inc., received stolen heavy equipment and stored it at his business and a pit mine. The identification on the vehicles would be removed and altered.

The equipment would then be put under a false name and sent either to an auction house or to an open pit mine off Interstate 15 in Clark County, Nev. The proceeds of the auction would be claimed by Tobeler businesses, the indictment indicates.

Tobeler is accused of stealing more than $5 million in heavy equipment and either selling it at auction or renting it out to customers.

A federal affidavit outlines the scheme, noting that Tobeler would generally take a crew from his business to a construction site where workers had finished for the day, then ``set out traffic cones and road guards and then load the equipment from the site onto flatbed trailers.''

With the profits, federal prosecutors say, Tobeler filled two warehouses with valuables. He is also charged with laundering more than $1.2 million in cash he got for the equipment.

They say Tobeler is a ``pathological collector,'' and court documents assert that he supported his collecting habit with the proceeds of his scheme.

``Do you remember in the movie `Raiders of the Lost Ark,' they put the ark in this warehouse lined with crates? That's what it was like,'' said Mitchell Walman, who had rented the warehouse to Tobeler.

A big seizure

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Welk said that although Tobeler has not been tried yet in criminal court, the asset forfeiture action was carried out separately, under civil law.

By law, Tobeler can appeal the seizure, which would trigger a hearing. But he has to wait until the government gives him notice of what it took before he can appeal. If the seizure is upheld, everything would go on the auction block.

Altogether, the items filled 30 trucks with items from the South Central warehouse, which was packed 12 feet high by 300 feet long by 80 feet wide. The property, valued by federal estimates at $4.5 million, also included a disheveled black-and-white cat - also in government custody.

Also in the Tobeler trove authorities found: jackhammers, pipe threaders and benders, drilling equipment, Geiger counters, a windmill for generating power on a boat, about 200 pounds of sterling service sets, a large Asian art collection, more than 200 Persian rugs, World War II-era mine detectors, 40 standing video arcade games, a collection of grenades and artillery pieces, explosives and blasting caps. They also found a fleet of 13 antique and classic cars.

Tobeler is an amiable man who kept a big Toblerone chocolate bar on the office desk, said Walman, his landlord. ``It was stacked floor to ceiling, with just a narrow isle to walk down, much like a pack rat's house, but on a much larger scale,'' he said.

Walman said the 24,000-square-foot warehouse has about 372,000 cubic feet of total space, packed to the rafters.

``You got pool tables, you got air hockey, you got your rock grinding, polishing and cutting equipment, there was a room full of unusual and rare books, German travel guides - first-edition German travel guides,'' he said. There was a 1950s vintage book called ``This Is Your FBI.''

There were deer heads, goats heads, moose heads, bear skins, elk horns and a cow's skull, he said.

``The cleanup will be staggering - just the nature of the junk that's left behind - a lot of the heavier tools were in disrepair,'' Walman said.

In earlier raids at home in Hancock Park and another South Central warehouse in January 1995, authorities found 65 firearms, including weapons described as illegal machine guns, according to a federal affidavit.

Some of the weapons were found in a secret room at the home, concealed by a built-in bookcase.

A big loss

One recent day at the warehouse, Tobeler contemplated his situation: Still only an accused man, he has lost his property to the government.

``It was just a rape,'' he said of the plundering of his collection, ``that's all it is.''

The glory that was Tobeler's collection is now a shambles.

Plaques in honor of contributions to U.S. Senate campaigns for the Republican party and a signed photo of President Bush are all that remains of value for Tobeler in his office.

The floor is strewn with rolled up rugs, garbage, beer cans and the odd chunk of Tobeler's vast mineral collection. Outside, down long, dark aisles stands what is left of the Tobeler collection.

Tobeler says he has lost nearly everything he owns, including his bed, as it was stored in the warehouse for moving purposes when the raid occurred.

``I don't even have a refrigerator or stove to cook on,'' he said. ``You just can't take everything away. It's very, very unfair. It's just a plain dirty trick.''

Tobeler also said he has lost sentimental items in the seizure, including things that belonged to his parents, including his father's birth certificate.

``No one has any use for those documents, other than myself,'' he said.

Tobeler's attorney, Stephen Hogg, contends that the government treated his client's property improperly.

``It's a disaster in there. Everything has been smashed, shoved, tipped over,'' he said, adding that the moving crews broke the legs of an antique cabinet and left it behind.

``You wouldn't want them coming to your house and seizing things the way they did it here,'' Hogg said.

Welk, of the U.S. Attorney's Office, said that the crews commissioned to do the work did what they could to protect the valuables from damage.

A big catfight 

Tobeler's friend and business associate, Anthony Smith, a former Los Angeles police officer, said he is angry about the government's insensitivity during the seizure.

While not charged with any crime, Smith says he feels he is the victim of one - cat-napping, by federal agents who seized his prized pet.

``I want my cat back,'' Smith said. ``I don't care about the millions of dollars in property and equipment, I want my cat back.''

``Pepper is my cat; they took the cat. They came here at gunpoint and took my cat,'' he said.

As for the cat, Welk said, it is being cared for by the case agent, whose number has been given to Smith and the Tobelers.

``He is eager to give it back to someone,'' Welk said.

Tobeler's wife, Frances, a petite woman and likely the only thing in Tobeler's life that is not on a grand scale, said the whole ordeal has left her helpless. ``You're powerless; you lose all your rights. It's like fighting God,'' she said.

A big name

Tobeler claims to be descended from the family that makes the distinctive triangle-shaped Toblerone chocolate. The name of the family is spelled Tobler. However, he insists the name was altered when his father, Paul Otto Tobeler, came to the United States in the 1920s.

Distributors in New York of the Toblerone chocolate company said they do not know whether Tobeler is related to the candy fortune. But federal authorities say they believe, based on documents, that Tobeler's father was connected to the German Swiss chocolate makers.

But even they say they can't be sure.

Tobeler said his father started a mining and equipment rental business as well as serving an honorary diplomatic function on behalf of Guatemala in the 1930s.

His father had been into mining, which explains the explosives found by the federal agents, Tobeler said. His mother, Blanca Visher, was an actress, he said, and he grew up in a 29-room mansion in Los Angeles.

Tobeler - also known as Dale La Palma, Paul La Palma and Tom Thomas - is charged along with his wife, Frances Tobeler, also known as Frances Troumo.

Officials said Tobeler was fingered after a state trooper did a routine check on one of the pieces of equipment and tracked the suspicious item to an auction house. The auction house - Miller & Miller in Fort Worth, Texas - later went bankrupt.

Meanwhile, Tobeler himself filed for bankruptcy as of May 1995. His last known address was a North Hollywood mail drop, authorities say.

Despite financial problems, Tobeler managed to hoard the multimillion-dollar collection.

Smith said he admires Tobeler for his ability to find value in what appears to be junk. ``It's what people call junk. Would you take this home to your wife?'' he asks, a green army helmet in hand. ``People see no value in it, but he does. He's like a speculator.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Paul Tobeler - who is under indictment on charges of stealing millions of dollars worth of Caterpillar tractors and other monster-size earth-moving equipment - sits in what used to be his office before federal agents carted off the contents. Authorities raided his warehouse April 1, taking arcade games, explosives, antique furniture and numerous other items.

(2) Business associate Anthony Smith is furious that law enforcement officials seized his pet cat along with heavy machinery, equipment, artworks, vintage cars and explosives.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News

(3) Paul Tobeler says his family in Europe ran the Toblerone chocolate company.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News